Katie Reilly - Session Chair

Katie is the Vice Chair of CCH. She is an architect specialising in people-led design, community-led housing, working with tricky urban and rural sites.

She currently works as Strategic Asset Manager at Waverley Borough Council and is on the Board of Directors for Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust.

Blase Lambert

Blase moved into a housing co-operative in 1996, became a CCH Board member in 1997 and has been its Chief Executive Officer since 2014.

He has been Treasurer of Co-operative Housing International since 2017 and the housing representative on the Board of the International Co-operative Alliance since 2022. His areas of expertise are corporate governance, risk management and financial control.

Anna Spencer

Anna is the Housing Development Manager at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and has worked in housing development for over 15 years.

She has worked on the delivery of projects to regenerate designated housing priority areas and project managed new build schemes in Liverpool..

Hayley Hulme

Working in social housing and social economy for over 30 years Hayley has broad experience with specialism in development, regeneration, property management and social enterprise leadership. She is committed to using her skills and experience to build on NWHS’ proud heritage of supporting community led social housing for almost 50 years.

Before joining NWHS Hayley was Managing Director of Starts with you, a Bolton social enterprise delivering housing services, foundational employment and access to opportunity. Active in the Greater Manchester social economy Hayley represented Bolton as part Andy Burnham’s Social Enterprise Advisory Group. Hayley is Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Property Committee at Clwyd Alyn Housing Association in North Wales.

Michaela Bygrave

Michaela is a community-led homes accredited advisor, CCH Associate, and Chartered Surveyor, and is Founder and Managing Director of Pointe Michel which provides ethical real estate advice for developers seeking a fairer housing system.

She is an advisor to a diverse range of community led housing hubs, community groups, developers and private consultancy firms, and a former Director of CCH.

Kirsty Noakes

Kirsty has spent more than 20 years working in the housing sector, from frontline homelessness services, to Shelter to the Housing Ombudsman, where she has been for 10 years.

Her current role is managing a Duty to Monitor team, assessing landlords’ compliance with the Complaint Handling Code.

Ashleigh Martin

Ashleigh is Head of Housing and Repairs at MB Housing, overseeing all aspects of their day to day services.

She has over 10 years experience in property and building management, working in residential and commercial property management in the private sector, and later in a block management and building compliance role. She specialises in building and health and safety compliance.

Demi Harrington

Demi has worked in frontline domestic abuse services for many years. Now, as the Senior Regional Lead for London at DAHA (Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance), Demi works strategically with housing providers and local authorities to improve their response to domestic abuse, embedding best practice and survivor-centred approaches across the sector.

Kush May-Chahal

Kush May-Chahal is Director of Training Services at Stop Hate UK. He has experience as a researcher, trainer, and practitioner in the broad area of hate crime, equality, diversity, and inclusion and community engagement.

Kush has undertaken research and community engagement projects in the UK and internationally, trained thousands of participants at all levels, and published practiced based resources including Supporting victims of hate crime and with Chartered Institute of Housing – How to support hate crime victims.

Helen Bartlett

Helen has been active in the co-operative movement in her home of Brighton & Hove for the past 20 years. She has been a resident and founder member of local housing co-operatives and supported co-operatives and community led housing groups through local and national voluntary networks and as co-ordinator of the community led housing hub, hosted by Brighton & Hove Community Land Trust.

She is a community-led homes accredited advisor, CCH Associate, and is the Programme Manager for Four Million Homes. Helen's particular areas of interest and expertise are in governance; participation; equality and diversity; raising finance; and financial planning and sustainability.

Paula Farrow

Paula has over 30 years of experience in the co-operative housing sector. She has been the Chair of Minster Housing Co-operative for over 30 years. In her volunteering role at CDS Co-operatives, she is the Founder member Chair of five co-operatives, was on the CDS board of management for 15 years, and previous to this was a member of their Housing Services Sub-committee.

After completing her 9 year term of office as the Chair of CCH, Paula is now a CCH Associate providing member training, support and advice. Paula has an HND in Housing and obtained a first class honours degree in Housing Management at the University of Kent.

Daryl McIntosh

Daryl McIntosh is Chief Executive of Share, bringing a longstanding career in housing and governance.

He leads Share’s work supporting housing professionals and governing bodies through qualifications, learning and development, with a focus on strengthening leadership, effective governance and services for communities.

Kevin Wan

Kevin Wan is a Chartered Management Accountant and Director of Finance at Northwest Housing Services, a customer-owned, not-for-profit mutual co-operative supporting its member organisations with financial management, governance and strategy. A CCH Board Member, he also serves as a voluntary board member at Kindred, a community based company supporting socially-trading organisations across Liverpool.

Kevin has over 30 years of extensive expertise in financial management, governance and the long-term sustainability of co-operative and community-led organisations.

James Neward

James is an accredited community-led housing enabler and a co-founder and Director of YorSpace,York’s Community Land Trust. He actively pioneers community led, affordable, low-carbon housing solutions.

He is a member of York’s first Housing Co-operative; Lowfield Green Housing Co-op and has worked nationally with established co-operatives to decarbonise their homes.

Paul Kelly

Paul has over 30 years’ experience supporting communities to take greater control of their homes and neighbourhoods. He has worked extensively across Liverpool City Region on community-led housing and housing regeneration, including establishing the Breaking Ground Community-led Housing Hub.

A Community-led Homes accredited advisor and CCH Associate, Paul is a founder of Homebaked Community Land Trust, a Board member of the National Community Land Trust Network and a trainer with the Four Million Homes programme. He brings a wealth of practical experience in helping communities develop strong, sustainable housing organisations.

Maria Moise

Maria is our Retrofit Coordinator. She's delivered low-carbon retrofit projects of all sizes across the UK, from assessments to technical delivery, always with strong client involvement. She works across all building types, including Listed Buildings, flood zones, and Conservation Areas, with experience in EnerPhit, LETI, and PAS 2035 standards.

She also teaches, authoring and tutoring the AECB CarbonLite™ Retrofit Coordination Course, and mentors people facing employment barriers into the retrofit sector. Maria has been part of our CCH retrofit team since 2022.

Delores Clarke

Delores has worked across London borough councils, housing associations, developers, and main contractors, delivering customer care services on mixed-tenure residential, commercial, health, and education projects.

Known for driving process improvements, she has implemented effective defect-tracking systems and contributed to reducing recurring issues through lessons learned and quality-focused reporting. Delores brings a collaborative mindset, strong commercial awareness, and a commitment to delivering positive outcomes.

Sue Bird

Sue co-founded YorSpace because she believes that houses should be built by the people who live in them and that this will create warm and thriving communities that will benefit everyone. . Sue was a professional soil scientist until recently but is now redirecting her skills in innovation and practical problem solving to tackle the problems of community-led housing.

She now works to support the completion of Lowfield Green Housing Coop's Mutual Homeownership scheme. Her aim is to support the formation of many more Mutual Homeownership schemes in York and around the country.