Chris is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner. He studied at The University of Manchester and the College of Estate Management, and has 36 years’ experience in private practice advising a range of public and private sector clients. Chris began his career at JR Eve in London in 1987. After a brief but highly formative period there, he was recruited by Hillier Parker (now CBRE) where he spent 12 years advising public and private sector clients on town centre developments, becoming a Senior Director and Head of the Planning and Public Sector Group. In 2002 Chris joined GVA Grimley (now Avison Young) as an Equity Partner and was later appointed as the National Head of Planning, Development and Regeneration and promoted to the Main Board. In 2015 Chris was invited to join DP9 as an Equity Partner and is now a Board Director of the specialist 90 strong planning consultancy based in London
In his previous roles Chris was one of the leading retail / town centre planning specialists in the UK, advising the UK government on planning policy and Practice Guidance, and advising retailers, developers and local authorities on out of town and town centre developments. He was involved in the ‘store wars’ and most of the regional shopping centre inquiries, and secured planning consents for a number of major shopping centre developments. Since joining DP9 Chris has switched his focus to major mixed use office, residential, retail and leisure developments in central London where he has been involved a number of major projects, including Battersea Power Station, Canada Water and Earls Court. Chris has led major applications for the Spurs Stadium, Maddison Square Gardens music venue in Stratford, Bicester Village, and a number of residential, student housing, assisted living and office schemes involving tall buildings and townscape/heritage issues. Recently, Chris has also been actively involved in repurposing/redeveloping town centre shopping centres.
Over the course of his career, Chris has given evidence at more than 70 major appeal, call in and CPO inquiries.
His most significant recent cases include 15 Clerkenwell Close, the Whitechapel Estate, The Tulip, The UK Holocaust Memorial, The Chiswick curve, the former ITN studios on the South Bank, South Kensington around station development, and the Marks and Spencer Marble Arch redevelopment scheme following the SoS call in, where embodied carbon was a key issue raised by the objectors.
This and other recent cases give him a unique insight into the current and potential significance of embodied carbon issues in the planning process.