Ros Brewer (Company Secretary)
Ros is a chartered landscape architect with extensive design experience in the design of landscapes for housing and parks, construction and project management experience. She has a great interest in urban design. She has worked in local government, planning, development and urban regeneration, and consulted within these field, especially for parks and play spaces.
Ros is very active in several Lewes community ventures from leading Health Walks, delivering Lewes News to being the Secretary of the Lewes and District Garden Society. She remains a Green Flag judge, assessing parks and gardens for the quality of their management, an ideal opportunity to be nosey!
Louis Blair (Chair)
Louis has worked in social housing and community empowerment in London and the South East for over 30 years. He has helped to set up a number of housing management co-ops and frequently acts as a community advocate on housing regeneration schemes, working on consultation and resident empowerment projects with Councils and Housing Associations throughout the country.
Richard Pearson
Richard Pearson is an economist with Board, management and consultancy skills in corporate governance, business strategy, finance and audit, remuneration and HR. He was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Sussex and Leicester and Chief Executive of the Institute for Employment Studies which provided national and international consulting services in the private sector, government, the EU and the OECD. He was a member of government advisory bodies such as the Senior Salaries Review Body. He has published extensively and spoken publicly both nationally and internationally.
He is active locally and has sat on the Boards of the Sussex Community Foundation, the Sussex Oakleaf charity, Priory School and the College, and currently with the Lewes District Citizens Advice Bureau. He is Founder and Chair of the Lewes Fund. He has an active interest in the arts.
David Bysh (Construction and Development specialist)
David is a highly experienced chartered building surveyor and has undertaken a wide range of building surveying tasks throughout his career. Over many years of experience of the construction industry, David has managed building contracts and refurbishment projects valued between £0.6m to £3.5m and a total workload of approximately £8m in any one year. He has developed a significant range of invaluable contacts both in local authority and commercial sectors.
His work has ranged from private and housing association residential properties, defects analysis for commercial, industrial properties, feasibility studies for schools, party wall negotiations, condition surveys for residential properties and commercial buildings. He has an extensive experience of different construction techniques and their associated issues and costs. He has a sound practical understanding of what will work. He acted as Employers Agent on a significant number of Design and Build projects for Housing Associations with projects ranging between £0.5m to £8.5m.
David is also an adviser to the Heart of Hastings CLT.
Debbie Twitchen
Debbie has a background in hospitality management working in a number of different venues locally. She is very involved in a number of different community groups and activities. She is Chair of the Tenants Organisation of Lewes District, attending Lewes District Council Cabinet and Finance Committee meetings in that capacity. She works closely with councillors and officers working for Homes First, which is the organisation which provides housing management services, property services and homelessness interventions to Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council and their subsidiary organisations. Debbie is Chair of the new Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Group which has been set up to oversee housing and tenant related policies and procedures across both councils. This will also set scrutiny reviews by tenants. She has a huge range of contacts and is an expert in the issues that face local people who live in housing insecurity.
Debbie is Chair of Landport Residents Association, a role which she has held for some year. She also organises the Food Bank for Landport Estate, where she lives, and a host of other things locally. In addition, she enjoys dressing up and decorating her house and garden to scare the local children witless at Halloween.
Graham Maunders
Graham is a Community Led Housing Advisor working with local Charity Action in rural Sussex. Providing a range of technical advice and support to community led housing groups and projects across Sussex. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and a Chartered Surveyor.
He has worked in affordable housing and regeneration for many years: local authorities, housing associations, the Housing Corporation and regeneration companies – covering a wide range of functions: governance, service delivery, asset management, development, regulation, funding, regeneration & community development.
Graham’s interests include music, he is also a Committee Member of Lewes Con Club.
Jonathan Spencer
Jonathan is an experienced Housing Professional based in Lewes, he is the CEO of a Housing Charity working with tenants with learning difficulties throughout London and the South East. He also has a background in information technology and communication.
He also brings experience of disability, social care, communications and commerce to help raise our profile and assist in new directions.
Linda Drabble (Minute Taker)
Linda is Sussex born and bred and has lived in Lewes for 36 years. Her professional career involved managing services in Adult and Children’s Social Care in local authorities and in the not for profit sector. She saw at first hand the difficulties caused by inadequate housing to individuals and to families. Linda is a volunteer with the Land Trust and is pleased to be able to make a contribution by taking the minutes at Board meetings.
