What we do
Dolphin Living creates affordable homes for working Londoners
London’s economy needs workers – and they need homes they can afford to rent.
We own 600 homes for rent and a further 196 are in construction. We plan to deliver 1000 homes by 2020 – by which time we will have bigger plans because London is growing rapidly. We expect to have invested £300m by then.
We are working in nine inner London boroughs and we want to work throughout inner London.
We plan to buy development opportunities, existing property investments, new build stock and to help other developers deliver their affordable housing planning obligations.
In December 2014 Dolphin Living acquired the 96-apartment New Era Estate in Hoxton, Hackney where we are pioneering an approach to renting based on ability to pay. Our smallest scheme of 16 units is Lanhill Road in Maida Vale, Westminster which is part of our Westminster Home Ownership Accelerator scheme. Our largest scheme is 77 units at our development Kennington Lane, Southwark.
Dolphin Living is part of Dolphin Square Charitable Foundation, an independent charity that was established with an endowment of more than £120 million in 2005. Our target customers are the people who make the City work – chefs, nurses, drivers, social workers, actors, police, restaurateurs, craftspeople, designers – all the people who need to live or work in town and who want well-designed homes at an affordable price.
We aim to keep building on that endowment, setting new standards in management and design for affordable housing in London.
The Team
Olivia Harris
Chief Executive
Olivia was appointed as Chief Executive in April 2017. Previously, Olivia was Finance Director at Dolphin Living, providing financial and commercial oversight on a wide range of property and related projects, including debt and fund raising. Olivia is a Chartered Accountant and has worked for more than 15 years in the property industry.
Alex Glenister
Head of Acquisitions and New Business
Alex is a Chartered Surveyor with over 10 years’ experience in the residential development sector working in both development consultancy and for affordable housing developers.
Alex is a director of our development subsidiary.
Mark Kent
Head of Asset Management
Mark has worked in the housing sector for 13 years and has experience in managing complex regeneration projects and improving performance in housing management services. Mark previously led the start-up and management of the affordable housing at East Village London, formerly the London 2012 Athletes’ Village.
Mark is the Managing Director of our Housing Association subsidiary
Peter Kling
Finance Manager
Peter is a CIMA qualified accountant with a Bachelors in Business and Commerce. Peter has eight years of experience across a variety of industries.
Sam While
Head of Project Management
Sam is a qualified Architect with over 12 years of experience within the construction industry. He is responsible of the design and delivery of all of Dolphin Living’s projects from post-acquisition through to completion.
Sam is a director of our development subsidiary.
Octavia Williams
Head of Corporate Services
Octavia has worked in the housing sector for 13 years and has a wide range of experience across a variety of areas in the sector. Previously Octavia led the Member Engagement and Relations team at the National Housing Federation. Octavia is a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Dolphin Square Foundation Board
Simon Dow CBE
Chair
Simon Dow is the Executive Chairman of the London Housing Foundation. Until recently he was Group Chief Executive of The Guinness Partnership, which owns 65,000 homes across the country. Prior to joining Guinness, Simon was acting Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation. Simon was appointed as a Member of the Homes and Communities Agency’s Regulation Committee in April 2016. In the past he has been a Director of the National Housing Federation, a Board Member of Reall (formally Homeless International), an international development agency and Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s Audit Committee.
Bruce Clitherow
A Chartered Surveyor and resident of Westminster, Bruce is Director of Estates for the Children’s Society and has over 30 years of experience in the property sector. He was also a Member of the Committee of Management of Dolphin Square Trust for 14 years.
Phil Jenkins
Phil is the Asset Development and Property Director at CityWest Homes Limited, which manages a major property portfolio with over 22,000 homes, ranging from social housing to private leasehold properties across Westminster split approximately 50/50 across these sectors. He has 25 years’ real estate, construction and development experience, most recently with the John Lewis Partnership. There he led the early development phase of their ‘Little Waitrose’ convenience format, developed the asset investment strategy for the existing Waitrose store portfolio and planned the future development pipeline for all selling formats.
David Lavarack
David is the Executive Director Corporate Services at Peabody, a large London based housing association. He is responsible for Strategy and Communications, HR, IT and Facilities. David joined Peabody in March 2007 from Barclays Bank, where he held several senior posts, including Small Business Banking Director and Chief Operating Officer for the marketing and communications functions worldwide. David has extensive experience in strategic change management and organisational development.
Trevor Moross
Trevor Moross is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor and is Joint Managing Director of Dorrington, a privately owned residential and commercial property company that invests mainly in London. He is a past President of The British Property Federation. Trevor is a Director of London and Quadrant Housing Trust, a large housing association. He also serves as a Trustee of Salusbury World, a small north London charity which works with refugee children, and of The Freud Museum.
Sarah Philbrick
Sarah Philbrick was Development Director at the Royal Academy of Engineering until December 2016. As a member of its senior management, she led its fundraising and relationships with companies, trusts and individual donors. Sarah spent nearly 20 years in investment banking and was a director of HSBC Investment Bank.
Among her voluntary roles, Sarah is joining the board of the Jurassic Coast Trust. She was closely involved in a start up non-profit, Computers for Youth, when she lived in New York and has also served as trustee of the Citizenship Foundation and as a school governor.
Tristan Samuels
Tristan Samuels is Head of Development for Westminster City Council. He is responsible for the delivery of a pipeline of 32 capital projects, with an estimated GDV of £1.2bn. He leads the Council’s housing renewal and regeneration programmes. Tristan is also a Director of the Councils housing charity, Westminster Community Homes. Prior to working for Westminster Tristan held a variety of private sector roles in development and construction sectors
Jane Staveley
Jane Staveley has been a partner in a number of City law firms over 30 years. She is now senior counsel at Ashurst LLP, specialising in the procurement and financing of social infrastructure projects, such as: schools, university accommodation, health facilities, MOD accommodation and social housing. Jane was a board member of Thames Valley Housing Association from 2001-2013 and Chair of the charitable subsidiary for the last 3 years of that period.
Peter Williams OBE
Peter Williams is a chartered accountant and has spent most of his career at 3i PLC., the quoted venture capital company, where he retired from the group board as head of UK.
He is director of Bridges Ventures, which is dedicated to sustainable and impact investing. He has recently retired as chair of Trust for London, a foundation tackling poverty in London.
Dolphin Living Ltd. Board
Richard Petty
Chair
Richard Petty is a Chartered Surveyor and Lead Director of Affordable Housing at Jones Lang LaSalle, the leading international property consultants. He has over 25 years’ professional experience. Richard specialises in the valuation and development of affordable housing stock and land. His team values and advises on over 500,000 units of housing throughout the UK, and reports valuations in excess of £25bn each year. He acts for all the lenders in the sector, and has a client list of over 250 housing associations, large and small, including all the G15, as well as local authorities and private developers.
Bruce Clitherow
A Chartered Surveyor and resident of Westminster, Bruce is Director of Estates for the Children’s Society and has over 30 years of experience in the property sector. He was also a Member of the Committee of Management of Dolphin Square Trust for 14 years.
Fenella Edge
Fenella Edge is Group Treasurer and Director of The Housing Finance Corporation, a specialist, not-for-profit organisation which, since inception, has raised over £3billion of private finance for Housing Association Registered providers. THFC is also the delivery partner of DCLG for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme. She joined THFC in 2002 having previously spent 11 years at Abbey National Treasury Services (“ANTS”) in a number of roles including Director of Market Risk, Director of Financial Products and Manager, Capital Markets. Prior to joining ANTS she had a number of capital markets and derivatives roles at banks and securities firms in the City.
David Lavarack
David is the Executive Director Corporate Services at Peabody, a large London based housing association. He is responsible for Strategy and Communications, HR, IT and Facilities. David joined Peabody in March 2007 from Barclays Bank, where he held several senior posts, including Small Business Banking Director and Chief Operating Officer for the marketing and communications functions worldwide. David has extensive experience in strategic change management and organisational development.