AG appoints housing director

Catherine Newton will lead the housing division for AG Project + Building Consultancy, formerly known as Anderton Gables.

Newton joins the Preston-based company from Poole Dick Associates, where she worked for nearly 14 years as a project manager. She has experience in managing the development of large social housing projects, mixed-use schemes, extra care homes, offices and hotels.

Newton will work out of AG’s Preston and Manchester offices. She is charged with growing and delivering the housing team’s project pipeline.

One of her first tasks will be to act as project lead for the Lancaster City Council’s multi-million-pound regeneration of the Mainway estate. The project will take an estimated five years to complete. It involves both retrofitting the existing houses on the estate and potentially building an additional 440 energy-efficient homes.

Jonathan Shaw, managing director of AG, praised Newton’s appointment.

“Cat is an outstanding addition to our growing housing division, bringing invaluable experience of working with a team to mentor and guide them through large and complex projects and we look forward to everyone here benefiting from the transfer of her many skills to AG,” Shaw said.

“There’s increasing demand for such specialist knowledge in the housing sector and Cat’s presence can only benefit us and our clients as we grow our housing division.”

This is the second senior hire for AG this year. The firm hired Paul Westhead as development director in January.

AG is a growing company, advising on a record £100m worth of property projects in the financial year ending March 2022. Last summer, it earned a place on the £560m JV North Framework. Later that year, AG was appointed to Fusion 21’s £120m public sector framework.

AG’s busy work pipeline has led the company to not only grow its staff to 30 employees but also expand its Manchester office at Canada House. In addition to Manchester, the company has offices in Preston and Sheffield.