UK: The Association for Rental Living (ARL) has appointed a new non-executive board with six members due to formally take over at ARL’s annual general meeting in late November 2024.
Helen Kings, chartered director and founder of boutique consultancy and advisory firm Kings Residential, will serve as chair of ARL. Her real estate experience includes more than 10 years working across the shared ownership, student and retirement sectors, as well as former managing director of Touchstone Residential.
Harry Swales, director and head of residential at Dorrington, will take the ARL role of vice chair and treasurer. He holds a 20-year career spanning government, banking, private equity and real estate.
Providing legal expertise is Cyrille West, head of build to rent London at Eversheds Sutherland. In addition to BTR, his wider operational real estate experience includes hotel, affordable housing, student and senior living sectors.
Leading the board on governance is qualified solicitor and real estate consultant Karen Cooksley. Specialising in planning, Cooksley is the founder of three consulting businesses and also holds several non-executive appointments including with the Edmund de Rothschild-backed Funding Affordable Housing, Housing Associatino (FAHHA).
Martin Bellinger, founding director of Goodstone Living, which currently has almost 1,000 homes under construction, will serve as an independent voice on the ARL board. He brings more than 30 years of real estate experience to his position, notably in affordable housing spanning both the public and private sectors.
Stephanie Smith, head of living sector at Hubbl, completes the new ARL appointments. She takes on the dual role of secretary in addition to chair of the ARL equality, diversity and inclusion committee.
Lesley Roberts, chair of the ARL, said: “We are delighted to be welcoming the new board to the ARL at this key point in the organisation’s evolution. The current board has served since just before Covid in 2019 and now feels that the ARL is ready to supercharge the next phase of membership growth and strategic positioning within the rental living sector ecosystem. The ARL’s next period of expansion requires fresh energy, perspective and a diversity of knowledge and expertise which this new Board will bring. We’re confident the organisation will be in safe hands.
“The nominations committee had a really tough gig filtering and selecting candidates from a large and very talented pool of applicants. The aim was to create a capability, gender and skills mix that would allow the ARL to fire on all cylinders of the strategic vision going forward and meet the needs of members, and I think we’ve achieved that.
“Our sincere appreciation goes to those who applied and also to those on the Nominations Committee who gave their time, expertise and energy in shaping and selecting the new board cohort. Congratulations to all new ARL Board Members,” she added.
The ARL was established in 2016 as the UK Apartment Association (UKAA), then rebranded in early 2024. It represents all institutionally backed, professionally managed purpose-built rental living sectors, including urban and suburban single-family and multifamily rental, coliving and later living.
