Stephen is an independent planning and development surveyor, and has worked for developers, councils, housing associations, community-led housing groups, government regeneration agency, and sustainable development consultancy.

His selected achievements include: RICS’ first Social Impact Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020; membership of Government’s Housing Construction Taskforce, Housing Policy Sounding Board, and Land & Strategic Planning Self-Build Working Group; judge for the Housing Design Awards; tutor/design studio master for Cambridge University’s post-grad Interdisciplinary Design of the Built Environment for city-scale planning for social, economic and environmental justice; trainer for the Future of London Leaders’ Courses on ethics and equitable development for planning, development and regeneration practitioners; and a Churchill Fellow in 2014 studying how community organisers in the USA/Canada advocate for better housing, increased democratic participation in local decision-making, and the co-production of housing and neighbourhood regeneration by citizens, municipalities and developers.

Stephen is a ‘project designer’, ensuring projects actually happen, with whatever is needed to achieve desired design, community empowerment, wellbeing and placemaking ambitions. Stephen’s role in public policymaking on community-led and mainstream housing is grounded in the hands-on practicalities of co-producing developments like Marmalade Lane in Cambridge through action-learning and effective procurement of design skills, construction and project delivery partners.