Knight Frank planners to join GVA
Richard Walters, partner and head of planning at Knight Frank in Manchester, has resigned to join the planning, development and regeneration team at GVA, alongside colleagues Matthew Claxton and Alice Routledge.
Claxton is an associate planner and Alice Routledge is an assistant planning consultant.
Walters joined from Gerald Eve in 2008, while Claxton joined from Indigo Planning in 2008 and Routledge joined in 2013 following a series of internships.
The planning team at Knight Frank will now be led by partner Andy McMullan.
The new appointments follow a series of departures from the planning, development and regeneration team at GVA over the last 18 months. Iain Jenkinson, senior director and head of the team across the North resigned in January to join CBRE, joining former GVA colleagues Chris Argent and James Sheppard. Director Sam Stafford left in September 2014 for Barratt Developments, while former head of planning Stephen Bell and senior planner Nick Graham moved to Turley in December 2013 and October 2014 respectively.
Gerry Hughes, senior director and national head of planning, development and regeneration at Bilfinger GVA, said: "In line with our investment strategy across the UK and reflecting the long standing importance of our planning, development and regeneration business in Manchester we will be welcoming at least four new members of the planning team in the next few weeks, including a new director.
"We cannot comment on specific names at this stage. These appointments will be supplemented by further investments in our planning capability and wider consultancy offer in the coming months. We will provide more details in due course, when it is appropriate to do so.
"This is part of a wider strategy of significant investment by Bilfinger in our planning, development and regeneration offer to take us to an undisputed market leading position in the UK and to grow our footprint across Europe."
