Director Jo McCafferty hands over her role and reflects on the past five years championing housing within NLA’s network:
When I agreed to chair the NLA Housing Expert Panel five years ago, none of us could have predicted quite how turbulent – or how consequential – this period would be for housing in London. What has remained constant, however, is the value of bringing serious people together around shared evidence, lived experience and a genuine commitment to better homes.
I want to reflect briefly on that work through five themes that have shaped the panel’s contribution over the past five years, and in particular 2025:
- Shaping the NLA’s housing programme
From the outset, the panel has played a quiet but influential role in helping the NLA frame its housing agenda. Whether through the Housing Summit, research publications or wider programming, the panel has helped ensure that housing discussions stayed grounded in delivery realities – density, typologies, affordability, existing stock and, crucially, the lived experience of residents. That grounding has given the NLA’s housing work credibility at moments when rhetoric has often run far ahead of reality.
- Influencing policy and campaigning
A core strength of the panel has been its ability to act as a trusted, cross-sector voice into policy. Over the past five years, that has included input into successive London Plan consultations, engagement with national legislation through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and constructive dialogue with bodies such as the London Assembly on building safety and tall residential buildings. The panel has never sought consensus for its own sake, but it has consistently offered balanced, delivery-led insight at critical policy moments.
- Housing research and evidence
The panel’s contribution to research – most recently through Homes for Londoners – reflects a shared belief that better decisions follow better evidence. One of the most powerful discussions in recent years was around post-occupancy evaluation, particularly learning from the LLDC’s large-scale work across nearly a thousand homes. Those conversations reinforced a simple but important truth: that learning from what we build, and how people actually live in it, must become standard practice rather than a nice-to-have.
- Advocacy for good, affordable homes
Through our support for Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing and the Good Homes for All campaign, the panel has helped keep design quality, affordability and long-term stewardship linked together – not treated as competing objectives. At a time when viability, regulation and delivery pressures have intensified, that advocacy has mattered. The panel has consistently argued that well-designed, genuinely affordable homes are not a luxury, but a foundation for a fair and functioning city.
- Collaboration and stewardship
What I am most proud of, above all, is the collaborative way the panel has worked together. Across local government, housing associations, development, planning, engineering, design and the GLA, members have shared insight generously, challenged each other robustly and stayed focused on outcomes. Over five years of policy change, market shocks and regulatory upheaval, that collective stewardship has helped the NLA remain a serious and respected voice on housing.
As I hand over the chair, I can think of no one better to take this work forward than Miranda McLaren of Orms. Miranda brings rigour, insight and a deep understanding of housing design and delivery, and I know the panel will thrive under her leadership.
So, thank you all – and Miranda, I wish you every success as the next Chair of the NLA Housing Expert Panel.
