Alex joined Greenhalgh Kerr in 2017 and is involved in each of the firm’s practice areas; Local Government Finance, Asset Finance, Insolvency and Landlord & Tenant. As a Barrister, he appears for the firm’s clients regularly in the Magistrates’ Court, County Court, High Court and Valuation Tribunal for England, specialising in litigation relating to National Non-Domestic Rates and issues arising from avoidance. In addition to appearing as Counsel, Alex has an advisory practice providing opinions on issues relating to business rates, council tax, insolvency, asset finance and property. Further, Alex provides training to clients, speaks regularly at events and is frequently published in the IRRV’s Insight magazine.
Alistair is currently IRRV Commercial Services Portfolio Holder and Council Member. He is also immediate Past President of the Institute. He has worked within Local Taxation, Revenues and Benefits throughout his career, initially working for a couple of Nottinghamshire Councils and latterly as Head of Revenues & Benefits for Milton Keynes Council. Alistair originally joined Milton Keynes, working for Mouchel in a contracted out service, and then later managed the transfer of the Service to the Council, during which time he also became Deputy Partnership Director for a Council owned LLP. After leaving Milton Keynes, Alistair joined Marston as Group Client Services Director, where he managed the Client Services function for the whole range of Group companies. After some 28 years working in Revenues and Benefits on an employed basis, Alistair established his own business as a consultant specialising in Local Taxation, Revenues & Benefits and local authority debt collection.
Allan brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his role as Head of Exchequer at the London Borough of Barnet. Since beginning his career in Local Government in 1995, Allan has amassed a diverse skillset through his involvement in various roles, including benefits, cash and bank management, debt recovery, fraud, local taxation, and transactional finance services. A recognised figure in the field, Allan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a Fellow member of the Institute. He is a past President of the London and Home Counties Association and former examiner for the Institutes certificate level qualification in Council Tax Law (England and Wales). Allan was elected to National Council in 2016 and is currently the Portfolio Holder for Law and Research and Junior Vice President of the Institute.
Andrew is a Director of Andrew Hetherton Consulting Ltd and a real estate and property tax consultant. He has 30 years of experience as a consultant in private practice dealing with wider range of property types.
Andrew is an elected member of IRRV Council and Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee. He is the Managing Editor of the IRRV Insight and Valuer publications.
He is one of a number of Institute represents on the Professional Bodies Liaison Group, Valuation Tribunal and Upper Tribunal User Groups. He is also a member of the RICS Local Taxation and Policy Group and the RSA Committee. Andrew is a member of the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), an Associate of the International Assessing Officers Association (IAAO) and also member of the Compulsory Purchase Association (CPA).
Andrew has been a member of the Institute since 1989, an Honours member since 2000 and a Fellow since 2023. A graduate of Oxford University, he found himself in the world of revenues by chance and has remained there ever since. He worked for Dudley MBC between 1988 and 2002, Birmingham City Council from 2002 to 2021 and Solihull MBC from 2021 to 2023. He represented councils in liability order and committal proceedings, and oversaw the introduction and development of insolvency and charging order action at Birmingham. He retired from full-time local government employment in January 2023 and is currently taking a break before considering future roles. Andrew has served as Secretary of the IRRV West Midlands Association from 2010 to date, except during his Presidential year in 2014-15. He is also Secretary of the Association Representatives group and a member of the Local Taxation & Revenues Faculty Board.
Anthony retired from gainful employment in July 2023. Anthony ran his own business - Anthony Sharp Associates- for 24 years, specializing in training, compliance issues, liaison consultancy in the consumer credit marketplace. Anthony is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. He was Project Manager, examiner, and tutor for the Credit Services Association Diploma Course, from 1998-2009. He was co- chair of the Credit Today Awards from 2000 until 2005. Anthony was awarded the prestigious award “Contribution to the Credit Industry” at the Credit Today Awards Ceremony in 2006. He is an Honorary Vice President of the Civil Court Users Association; was co-founder and Chair of the Money Advice Liaison Group between 1987 and April 2016; appointed vice chair of The Enforcement Law Review Group in November 2007 and from 2018- 2022 he was Chair of the Advisory Panel of Bristow & Sutor, Enforcement Company.
Christopher is a Director in the Business Rate team at Hartnell Taylor Cook. Having joined the business rates world in the run up to the 1990 revaluation he has dealt with appeals on many different property types in every Revaluation since including a spell in the Valuation Office. Christopher is Vice Chair of the IRRV Valuation Faculty, Secretary of the London & Home Counties IRRV Association and a member of IRRV Council
Chris is Chief Executive of the Enforcement Conduct Board, the independent oversight body for the enforcement sector in England and Wales. He began his career at the Ministry of Justice where he helped to bring in a pioneering new regulatory framework for legal services. He then moved to the Bar Standards Board where he set up new approaches to barrister regulation as well as delivering a supervision function and leading the first ever round of on-site audits of barristers' chambers. Before taking up his current role in March 2023, Chris spent eight years at the Legal Services Board where he held a number of senior roles including Director of Policy and Oversight.
Clare joined the rating team at Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 as a Senior Business Rates Manager. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Clare spent 18 years working for a number of local authorities in Northamptonshire dealing with all aspects of revenues, including non-domestic rates and council tax, providing an insight to local authority policies and procedures and the challenges faced by both local authorities and ratepayers. Clare is currently responsible for the Business Rates Finance Team in the Birmingham office as well as the account management of key investor and occupier clients, historic rates audit service, advising and implement mitigation strategies, and identifying and developing new business opportunities. Clare is consistently one of the department's highest fee earners generating income through audit, mitigation, discretionary relief applications and identifying CCA opportunities and successfully led Cushman & Wakefield’s submission and presentation in winning the 2019 IRRV Excellence in Non-Domestic Rates.
Colin is currently a director of his own consultancy firm, CHExpertise Limited. Formerly a Director of Lambert Smith Hampton, he started his career in the Valuation Office in 1982 as a Cadet Valuer, leaving the VO to join private practice in Leeds in 1989 joining the firm of Hepper Robinson. Colin has dealt with most property types for rating from castles to caves as well as the usual run of offices, industrials, and retail, but has also dealt with rent reviews and odd instructions such as being an expert witness for a public enquiry on the proposed location and width of a public footpath. He has attended Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and before that Lands Tribunal as an Expert Witness for working men’s clubs, offices, a port authority and more recently museums and a farm attraction. He is the national adviser to the Association of Independent Museums having spearheaded their efforts over the last 20 years to move the Valuation Office away from contractors’ method of valuation for museums to receipts and expenditure.
With 30 years’ experience in designing and delivering services that simplify and automate business applications. Daniel has a background in producing innovative communications, techniques and strategies that reduce costs and improve productivity. Our advanced services reduce the cost of customer engagement, promote self-serve freeing up resources. Specialising in debt recovery and customer engagement applications for local government and enforcement, our services are industry proven. Daniel now develops services merging behavioural science and technology to improve outcomes based on current public behaviours and habits with the objective to improve outcomes for both parties more effectively.
Duncan worked for Lancaster City Council for 16 years and held a number of positions within Revenues Services. Since then, Duncan has worked as a Consultant and Project Manager for a large private sector software company. As a Founding Director of Destin Solutions, he has been involved with Business Process Re-engineering in Revenues & Benefit services, creation of Electronic Procedure Manuals, software configuration and report writing. He is a member of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and is a past president of the Lancashire & Cheshire IRRV branch.
Emily joined Greenhalgh Kerr in September 2020 and qualified as a Solicitor in August 2023. As part of the Defended Litigation Team, Emily works on the defended, complex and high value files in each of the firm’s practice areas; Local Government Finance, Asset Finance, Insolvency and Landlord & Tenant. Emily is also an internal advocate regularly attending hearings in the County Court on behalf of the firm’s clients.
Jim has served on the national council for over 10 years and is currently Education & Membership portfolio holder. He is a Past President of the IRRV and a member of the IRRV Benefits and Revenues Faculty Boards. Jim was also President of the IRRV Scottish Association. He has lectured for the IRRV in both England and Scotland. He has been a speaker at many conferences and seminars in the UK and presented papers on local taxation in the USA and the Netherlands. Jim has also represented the IRRV in giving evidence to Scottish Government Committees and various consultative bodies. Jim has worked for several councils in England and Scotland and for the Valuation Tribunal Service. Jim worked for West Lothian Council as Revenues and Benefits Manager and also as Corporate Procurement Manager. He was a member of the DAS Review Board. He has held Revenues and Benefits Manager 10 times including on two separate occasions at two councils. He has worked as a consultant for several clients including Councils in England and Scotland, RSLs, IT Suppliers and the Scottish Government where he produced a report on Council Tax Reduction Reviews As Project Manager, Jim returned Revenues and Benefits and IT Services to in-house provision following the break–up of a shared service. He also took part in a feasibility study for a large Council bringing its Revenues service in house after a lengthy period of outsourcing. This gives him a rare insight into what can cause a shared service to fail and what you should do to protect against this. Jim has also held an interim position as Revenues and Benefits Development Manager for BT Lancashire Services between December 2015 and December 2016. In 2017 he worked an assignment with Birmingham City Council supporting their management in the return of the Revenues Service to in-house provision. Following on from that he has held interim senior management roles at several councils including Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Melton Borough Council and Richmondshire District Council.
Jonathan is responsible for leading a team in the DWP providing a performance management and consultancy service for the 350 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. In addition, we provide a consultancy service for DWP and other Whitehall departments. The team comprises of qualified consultants (The Institute of Consulting, the only professional body in the UK, which represents individuals within the consultancy profession) who have many years of experience and expertise of working with central and local government to deliver sustainable improvements in performance. We identify and share good practice and encourage our clients to be innovative and promote the use of available services and technology, helping them make best use of their resources to deliver an improved customer experience. We do this using the full range of business consultancy tools and techniques, to review the delivery of key local services and over many years we have successfully helped to drive tangible and sustainable improvements.
Jonathan has been Chief Executive of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) since March 2020. Jonathan is responsible for delivering the VOA’s strategy, business objectives and performance. He leads the agency, chairs the executive committee and is accountable for expenditure and performance. Previously Chief People Officer for the VOA, Jonathan was accountable for HR, Estates and Communications. He has been a Civil Servant for over 30 years, starting in HSE as a Health and Safety Inspector. He has also worked in central government and international roles. Jonathan is currently, a member of IRRV, the Civil Service Insurance Society and an Independent Member of the Charity Commission’s Remuneration and Appointments Committee. Jonathan also undertakes the role of Head of Profession for Health and Safety in the Civil Service. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development, and a Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.
Karen works on entitledto's content and product development. She works alongside Dr Phil Agulnik on the rule-base that underlies entitledto’s products. For the past seven years, she has led on the coverage of Council Tax Reduction schemes within entitledto’s calculators. She has a degree in Social Policy and has specialised in welfare benefits in several roles over the past 15 years.
Kevin leads on MaPS policy matters relating to creditor debt recovery practices, enforcement, and support for those in financial difficulty. His team leads the onboarding of creditor referral partners for the MaPS funded Money Adviser Network. Kevin is the author of the MaPs publications ‘Supportive Council Tax Recovery - a strategic guide for Local Authorities’(2018) and ‘Working collaboratively with debt advice agencies – a strategic toolkit for creditors’ (2017, updated 2021). He is a member of several UK government advisory groups for debt.
Louise started work, over 30 years ago, in Port Talbot Borough Council benefits section as a clerical assistant, during the days of Community Charge Benefit. Since that time, Louise has gained experience in a range of roles at various local authorities and within the private sector. Louise has been a member of the Benefits Faculty Board and of the IRRV national Council for a number of years as well as being a former national President. She is also currently vice-chair of the Education/Membership Committee.
Luke has an established practice, specialising in planning, rating and valuation, highways and property law. As a planner, Luke appears regularly both in public inquiries and in legal challenges in the Courts (including appearing unled against silks). He acts for developers, LPAs and the Secretary of State. He has particular experience in housing, heritage, highways and valuation/viability matters in the planning field. Luke is recognised as one of the leading rating practitioners in the country. He has appeared four times in the Supreme Court, advises and acts for clients from multinational corporations to central government departments, and regularly lectures at national rating events. He also practices in related taxation fields where property valuation issues arise. Luke maintains a busy property practice, with a particular expertise in property valuation matters (primarily rent review) and cases concerning rights of way (both public and private).
Mark has worked within the Revenues arena for almost forty years and is currently the Group Manager Revenues, Income Recovery & Debt at Walsall MBC. His previous posts have included Revenues Manager at Milton Keynes Council, Head of Revenues at North West Leicestershire DC and Revenue Collection Manager at South Derbyshire District Council. Mark is the vice-chair of the IRRV’s Local Taxation and Revenue Faculty Board and has spoken at numerous IRRV events. He has been a member of the East Midlands IRRV Association executive since 1998 and has held the posts of Secretary and President during that time. Over the last three IRRV performance awards Walsall have won four awards, including Revenue Team of the Year, as well as being highly commended in another.
Mark started his career at G L Hearn in 1985 and moved to Montagu Evans LLP in 1987. He qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1988, became an Associate in 1991 and a Partner in 1997. He was promoted to Equity Partner and Head of Rating in 2010, overseeing teams in London, Manchester, and Glasgow. Throughout his time in private practice Mark specialised in non-domestic rating and advised clients in the healthcare, heavy industrial and leisure sectors, but it was for his expertise in retail that he was best known. He advised retailers across the entire spectrum of retail premises from Ladbrokes betting shops to Harrods. He has extensive experience in the out-of-town sector with a particular specialism in ‘drive thru’ restaurants having advised McDonald’s Restaurants for 35 years. In 2001 Mark was appointed Honorary Secretary of the Rating Surveyors’ Association and became the centenary President in 2009. He has also been closely connected to the RICS and chaired the Rating and Local Taxation Policy Panel between 2010 and 2020. During his tenure he co-authored the 4th edition RICS/IRRV/RSA Rating Consultancy Code of Practice and was part of the Working Group appointed to review the RICS Practice Statement, Surveyors Acting as Expert Witnesses 4th edition. He also represented the RICS in discussions with various government departments including the Treasury. Mark is an Honorary Member of the RICS Rating Diploma Holders’ Section and was the section’s external moderator between 2011 and 2019. Mark has been a regular conference speaker since the 1990s and has contributed articles to Property Week and the Estates Gazette. In 2019 Mark was appointed a Surveyor Member of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and took up his post in the Judiciary in 2020. He sits across a variety of jurisdictions including non-domestic rating, restrictive covenants, compulsory purchase, leasehold enfranchisement and telecommunications.
Michelle has worked at South Staffordshire Council since 2007 and is the Welfare and Benefit Manager. Prior to this she worked for 17 years within Housing Benefits at Wolverhampton City Council as a benefits assessor; having started her career at the DHSS as it was known, working in the Social Fund department. Michelle’s team provides a range of Welfare Support including Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support assessments, as well as applications for Discretionary Housing Payments and Council Tax Discretionary awards. She also has responsibility for the Disabled Facility Grants budget, which is delivered through a shared service. Michelle has experience of working with several ‘In to Work’ projects and currently oversees the Creating Brighter Futures programme; a UK Shared Prosperity funded project that supports those with multiple barriers, to move closer to employment, but also funds training for employees looking to improve their career prospects.
Nick has worked in Local Government for over 35 years. Starting in 1986 in General Rates and progressing through Community Charge and Council Tax/NNDR. He was subsequently also involved in Benefits for the past 15 years. He has also worked in the private sector and during that time worked on a number of Revenues and Benefits sites. He is currently Assistant Director of Finance - Revenues for the London Borough of Ealing. Nick is Chair of the London Revenues Group and he has also represented local authorities on a number of central government working parties and is an LGA advisor for Revenues. He has been a member of IRRV for a number of years, having originally studied for the technician exams back in 1991. He then progressed to corporate level in 2005. He is a former President of the IRRV London and Home Counties Association and a member of the IRRV Revenues Faculty Board. He has spoken at a number of conferences and presented training days for the IRRV. Nick has been on national council since 2011 and is the current National IRRV Vice President.
Nick has been involved with various aspects of the rating system since 1992 covering both policy and valuation. He now works for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as a Technical Specialist on rating valuation and local taxation.
Former Head of Rating Valuation at the VOA’s head office, honorary member of the Institute, sometime chairman of the RICS Rating Diploma Holders’ Section and a past president of the Rating Surveyors’ Association. Patrick had 43 years' experience with the VOA including as DV/VO for various London boroughs and Group Valuation Officer East Anglia. Since graduating from Reading University, he has taken keen interest in the special valuation practice of Rating and in 1986 obtained the RICS’ Special Diploma in Rating. He has undertaken work in the international field including advising on property tax in Addis Ababa. Additionally, Patrick is a visiting lecturer at Bayes Business School, City University, an IRRV tutor, a well-known speaker at numerous Rating, Valuation and Property Measurement events and at various international conferences. He is co-author of ‘Rating Valuation Principles and Practice’ the textbook for students and practitioners, now in its fifth edition (2024).
Paula started her career with Dumfries & Galloway Council in January 2000 as a Clerical Assistant with responsibility for a stapler in the filing room. The introduction of a document management system and the many and varied changes since 2000 saw her career within Revenue Services develop. Current remit includes: • Housing Benefit - including overpayment recovery • Council Tax Reduction • Scottish Welfare Fund • Discretionary Housing Payments • Financial Assessments for care at home and residential care • Income Maximisation • Welfare and Housing Options • Council Tax administration • Non-Domestic Rates Paula is immediate past president of the IRRV Scottish Association, chair of the IRRV Welfare Reform consortium and current Education Liaison Officer for Scotland. As an active member of the IRRV Paula is a firm believer that by working together we can meet the challenges ahead.
Phil is an expert on the UK’s benefits and tax system. He is responsible for product development within entitledto and for representing the company externally. He has worked as an economist in the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and in academia. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics on social security policy.
Phil is the Assistant Director, Financial Shared Services at the City of London Corporation. He is responsible for the collection and recovery of Business Rates in the Square Mile as well as the delivery of Council Tax , Housing Benefits, Payroll and Transactional Finance services. He has previously worked for over 20 years at Westminster City Council where he was Head of Revenues and Benefits. He is a Past President and current executive member of the IRRV London and Home Counties Association and an executive member of the London Revenues Group.
Russell was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of CIVEA, representing the civil enforcement industry, in January 2018. He previously held the post of Chief Executive of the Consumer Finance Association, where he was responsible for working with legislators and regulators and partnering with consumer organisations to raise standards in the short-term lending industry. Throughout his career he has been involved in the leadership of membership bodies. As such he has become a proficient commentator and spokesman, both through his work with policymakers and through his media profile. He has also held senior positions at the Finance and Leasing Association and the Energy Retail Association (now known as Energy UK). He has worked in Downing Street for the Chief Whip and the Cabinet Office as private secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal.
Simon is Head of Business Rates at Gerald Eve responsible for co-ordinating rating advisory services across the business and leading their 60+ rating surveyors who have saved clients over £3bn since the 2010 rating revaluation. Simon is a national council member and the current Senior Vice President of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV). He is a member of The Rating Surveyors’ Association and sits on the RICS Rating and Local Taxation Advisory Forum. Simon deals with all rating matters for clients and has handled appeals for a wide range of property types for over 25 years with particular emphasis on the manufacturing, distribution, and general industrial sectors. Simon provides strategic rating advice on many nationwide portfolios covering all aspects of rate management, appeal strategy and other non-appeal related rating matters including advice in respect of strategies to minimise empty rate liabilities.
Stephanie is a Partner at Wilks Head & Eve LLP who specialises in Valuation for Business Rates purposes on behalf of ratepayers. Stephanie has experience of assessments across a wide range of property types, from bulk descriptions of industrial, retail, offices to the unusual, such as Waste Plants and Crematoria. Stephanie’s Practice has a number of public sector Local Authority clients who are business property taxpayers in their own right, as well as tax collectors and Taxing Authorities. In addition to rating appeal work Stephanie deals with more complex issues in relation to s44a, empty rates and Completion Notice issues and undertakes a range of one-off Red Book Valuations. Stephanie is a highly experienced Business Rates Valuer and Practitioner and a member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and a member of the Rating Surveyors Association (RSA).
Tim has extensive experience in delivering improved performance in welfare benefits and local tax collection. Tim joined Birmingham in 2017 and has led improvements in Revenues and Benefits at the largest council in Europe. He has previously worked at three other councils in Revenues and Benefits management – Southampton, Coventry and Bournemouth. He also spent 10 years with the Audit Commission, including leading the national benefits inspection service. Tim maintains strong links with Central Government and ‘sits’ on the national DWP/LGA Welfare Steering Group and has until very recently been a member of the Cabinet Office Debt and Fraud Information Sharing Review Board.
Zoe’s career started at the DHSS working on Supplementary Benefit and then Income Support. After a career break she moved into Local Government in 2003 working on the frontline of the Housing Benefit team at Swale Borough Council, then moving on to the roles of Training Officer, Assistant Revenues and Benefits Manager and from 2015 Revenues and Benefits Manager. Zoe worked with the DWP to set up the Kent Overpayments Network, to ensure that overpayment officers were able to meet, to discuss good practice and bring in new initiatives. She obtained her full IRRV qualification in 2010 and has been on the IRRV SE Association executive for many years becoming an IRRV Council Member in October 2018.