Panel to include representatives from Jestico + Whiles, Urban Splash and Design for Homes

Architect Tom Jestico, Urban Splash’s Nick Johnson and David Birkbeck, chief executive of Design for Homes, are among those appointed to the Homes and Community Agency (HCA)’s design and sustainability advice board.

Dru Vesty, an HCA board member and formerly a senior planning and property professional with British Gas and the London Docklands Development Corporation, will chair the group.

The experts will help the HCA deliver on its statutory design and sustainability standards. It will provide an annual review to the HCA board on how to meets those targets and how it can improve its policies and procedures.

The HCA is currently working to streamline the differing former Housing Corporation and English Partnerships quality standards for schemes on its land. The HCA will also have to make a decision about the quality standards it requires from schemes built by private housebuilders, but since bought by the agency.

It is due to report in the summer.

The board in full:

  • David Birkbeck, chief executive of Design for Homes
  • Andrew Drury, managing director of HATC
  • Tom Jestico, architect and founder of Jestico + Whiles, an award-winning architectural practice
  • Nick Johnson, deputy chief executive of Urban Splash
  • James Pargeter, partner at Drivers Jonas
  • Neil Smith, group head of research and innovation at NHBC.

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