Kate Davies
Property professional; experienced, driven and politically astute, with a strong people focus
Deep knowledge about residential property
From building homes, getting planning permission, and managing rented housing portfolios to selling homes and understanding the building process, Kate knows about refurbishment, sustainability, rectification, and building communities that work for the long term.
For six years she was a board member at NHBC which issues warranties to 80% of the new homes industry in the UK. She has been a board member at TopHat – an innovative and exciting modular housing construction company since 2020, and on the board at Stonebond, a rapidly growing quality housebuilder.
An innovative technology leader
Working with talented colleagues, Kate introduced an end to end technology system into NHG, allowing tenants to self serve. This revolutionary initiative focused on rents and arrears, service charges, repairs and workflow and document management for staff. She was a board advisor to yld – a software development company based in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2023 she studied at Stanford University in Palo Alto to broaden her technology expertise.
Kate Davies CBE FRICS
Management Consultant
Reach out if you think I could help you, or just wanted to discuss ideas.
Board and advisory experience
As the CEO of NHG and Servite Housing, the Director of Housing at Brighton & Hove Council and London borough of Bexley Kate has significant experience in the regulated sector. Recently Kate has been working in the For Profit Registered Provider sector.
Legislative and regulatory framework expertise
Further to the NED roles, Kate has served on the boards of Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Union of Students (Vice Chair), Ekaya housing association, Friends School, Saffron Walden and a wide range of national and local government advisory and consultative groups such as the Centre for Social Justice, the British Property Federation, the Shared Equity Task Force, Lewisham Housing Commission, the Hammersmith and Fulham Local Strategic Partnership, and others.
Strategic leadership
Kate is particularly strong on strategic leadership, and helped to foster NHG’s reputation as being strongly led with absolute clarity of its primary task and key objectives. This has ensured its financial and social success over the last two decades. Kate helps organisations – large and small; start ups, charities and large companies – think through what they are in business for, how to become more profitable and effective, and creates well written, simple business plans that deliver results.
Cultural issues
With a degree and MPhil in sociology and a postgraduate qualification in organisational design and leadership from the University of East London, Kate has a deep insight about how to create successful, happy, collaborative organisations. Putting this into practise in a range of organisations during her long career she achieved 92% staff satisfaction ratings at NHG and Servite housing. A key part of this interest and commitment is to ensuring that organisations are diverse and inclusive. She ensured, through creative recruitment strategies, that NHG represented the communities it served at Board and executive levels.
Entrepreneurial drive
Kate has created a number of businesses – both independently and within larger organisations. For example Folio London, now a £1bn company providing over 3,000 homes for rent in London. Similarly, within NHG, she pioneered SimpliCity a project that involved buying up homes in London, refurbishing them and letting them at a substantial discount. She is currently working with a group of investors to mentor, support and raise funds to invest in property technology and startups.
Risk Management
As well as running a property business for two decades through a mountain of economic and political challenges, experience on the risk committees of both NHBC and NHG has given Kate a strong understanding of risk management.