Meet the team

Neill has more than 25 years’ experience in real estate and property development.

He started his career in Construction for a contractor before joining a number of large housing associations where he became skilled in all facets of a large residential investment and development business. Skills such as land buying, planning, property development, project management, sales and regeneration. Becoming skilled and proficient in joint ventures, differing deal structures and procurement routes as well as securing and managing large Government allocations of grant funding.

Neill is married with three children and lives in East Kent in a village near the coast. He has held senior leadership positions for more than 16 years, 14 of those as Director and Group Director at Optivo and legacy organisation AmicusHorizon Housing Association. More recently he worked for the Goldman Sachs owned Modular Housing Company, TopHat, before setting up the Counties & Capital Group of companies.

Neill began his property career working as a Site Manager for a construction company managing new build and refurbishment schemes. After switching to the client side, he worked for various Housing Associations, including L&Q and Amicus, securing land and delivering residential property in Kent, Sussex and London. Success followed and career progression was fast moving as he became Development Director at the age of 30.

Neill is a Fellow of the CIOB for Construction Management, a Member of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and a Level 7 certified NLP Coach and Mentor. Neill was Vice Chair of a ‘Super ALMO’ East Kent Housing for 4 years up to 2018 and he sits on numerous advisory panels and property industry think tanks.

Neill has been a part of the Leadership team at Optivo that went through 2 large mergers creating teams from a blank sheet of paper and creating and implementing a cultural programme rolled out to all 1,000+ staff to ensure performance didn’t drop through the uncertainty and transition.

In his role as Group Land and New Business Director and Development Director he was responsible for sourcing, seeking approval, securing and delivering thousands of new homes on hundreds of housing led property developments of differing kinds procured and delivered in differing ways. At the time of leaving Optivo Neill was responsible for over £350m of yearly investment and was delivering 1,500 physical property starts per annum.

In order to deliver this growth via sustainable and high-quality housing, Neill takes a keen interest in design and placemaking and is proud to have won a number of awards for schemes and design.

Now through Counties & Capital Neill is able to use his entrepreneurial spirit and positive and hardworking approach to add value for clients in many ways. Neill and colleagues assist with scheme design, specification, advocacy and Business Development, option appraisals, creating and advising on the right market for land sales to maximise client net returns, running planning on schemes, creating Package deals and partnerships to deliver the best scheme and product for the client. We review, and advise on, alternative property funding strategies, regeneration and asset option appraisals and assessment of business need for space and amenities.

In his spare time Neill loves watching and playing sport. A keen footballer and sportsman in younger years these days he’s a convert to the game of golf (albeit fair weather golf only!) and continues to captain Herne Cricket Club as he has since 2010.

Jenny is the newest member of the team and has recently joined Counties & Capital Consulting Ltd as an Associate Senior Development Manager back in August 2022. The introduction of Jenny to the company sees a reunion of her and Neill who have previously worked together at a large housing association, both in senior roles for more than 15 years.

With over 30 years’ experience of working within the housing and construction sector and the responsibility for delivering a development programme of over £400m, Jenny is well placed in assisting with much of the day-to-day project management work. Her level of knowledge and practical skills means she is well equipped in undertaking a wide range of responsibilities within the company ranging from feasibility studies, market research, valuation and the development of new business to name just a few.

Utilising the experience she has gathered from her former Senior Management roles, Jenny is well versed in working with a wide range of stakeholders including many registered providers, local authorities and private developers. Jenny is held in high-regard throughout the property and construction sector.

Jenny has previously been involved in a number of notable projects over the years which amongst others includes St Peters Hospital, a 147 unit scheme designed for key workers, Forstal Mead in Coxheath, a 210 unit scheme working in partnership with Chartways, Berengrave Lane, a 120 unit scheme working with Vistry, Leolyn House in St Leonards (a South East Local Enterprise Partnership /Homes England/Local Authority funded and Local Space scheme) and Atlas Place on St Mary’s Island, an extra care mixed tenure scheme working in partnership with Countryside.

Passionate about property, Jenny is completely obsessed with real estate and in her spare time, she is currently renovating property number 4! Jenny brings to the company a level of unrivalled expertise in the field of land and development and we are delighted to welcome her to the team!

With experience in the estate agency and property development sectors, Ellie brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Counties & Capital Consulting. As a Marketing Administrative Assistant, Ellie supports the team with various administrative and organizational tasks, while also managing social media to promote the business. Her responsibilities include marketing, advertising, and brand promotion for new developments, contributing significantly to key projects and enhancing the office’s professional image.

Before joining Counties & Capital Consulting, Ellie excelled as a Sales Negotiator, building strong client relationships, meeting sales targets, and ensuring smooth transactions. This role honed her skills in client relations, sales, and customer service, making Ellie well-prepared for hands-on roles in the land and property sector.

Outside of work, Ellie loves spending time with friends and family and enjoys travelling to new places.

Deb has worked in the Housing sector for over 30 years in Housing Management, Sales and Development. She has worked for Housing Associations, Local Authority, Private Sector Leasing and Consultancy practises.

Debs’ main skills include land purchase, negotiation, planning, viability work and partnership working as well as Project Delivery.  Her knowledge and experience means she can successfully procure and deliver various projects at differing levels of complexity.

A scheme Deb is particularly proud of is a large rural exception site in Hawkhurst, Kent of 24 homes where the site took over 7 years to deliver due to a public and planning enquiry, a village green application and probate! It took tenacity and skill to negotiate all these hurdles and deliver this site for homeless families in the local community in partnership with the Parish and Local Council. After such a long battle she experienced great joy when attending the community open day for stakeholders and residents and to see their happy smiling faces.

Deb was lead new business manager on the highly esteemed and multi-phase site at Kings Hill, working in partnership with Liberty who manage the estate. The site had extra challenges as it was an old WW2 airfield with potential UXB’s, prescriptive master plan design protocols and specification plus meeting strict delivery timescales. Planning for 126 affordable and 40 private sale homes across 3 parcels of land was secured in 2019 and delivery completed in 2021/2.

Debs’ passion has always been for affordable housing, especially to experience customers delight in being handed their keys to rent or part-own their first home which they thought would never be possible. She loves the full experience from inception to completion and hopes to carry on delivering high quality homes for years to come.

Away from the office Deb loves, history, historic buildings, and antique collecting. She also loves to keep fit having been an international gymnast in her youth and helps her husband John, (to which she got married September 2024 after being together for 42 years) to coach weight training and fitness which their 2 children Ellie and Beren, both in their 30’s, attend. When not working or coaching she likes to spend time with her husband and 2 mad boxer dogs, going away in their camper van all over Great Britain – never a dull moment!

Ashley is extremely excited to start this new adventure at Counties and Capital, alongside Neill, Jenny, and Georgia. As an experienced office administrator with over 20 years of experience in various sectors of the industry, Ashley hopes to share years of knowledge and bring some structure to the team. Ashley enjoys socialising with friends and family, taking walks with family, and gardening on a summer’s day.

Elizabeth has worked in Housing for over 9 years as a Land and New Business Manager and Development Manager for the majority of that time. Liz has worked for Housing Associations and also a Tier 1 large Partnership contractor.

Elizabeth’s main skills include land purchase, negotiation, planning, cost management, viability work, bid and report writing as well as Project/Development Management.  Her knowledge and experience means she can successfully procure and deliver various projects at differing levels of complexity.  A scheme Liz is particularly proud of is a regeneration scheme called Evelyn House in Charlton, Greenwich. As part of the Charlton Masterplan area planning was complicated despite the project being for a fully affordable scheme. As part of her Development Management role Liz successfully led on a Planning Enquiry and the scheme is now being built out by Hill Partnerships following a competitive tender process. The project will provide 67 affordable rented homes for local people.

Some of Elizabeth’s other notable successes were delivering a high quality mixed tenure scheme in Ninfield, East Sussex which delivered 80 mixed tenure homes and a pre-sale package deal scheme with a contractor/developer which is on site now delivering 208 homes of affordable and market housing in Hastings, East Sussex.

More recently as a consultant Liz has a knack for Bid Writing and tender submissions both for C&CC and for third part clients.

Whilst skilled in market housing Elizabeth’s passion lies in building affordable homes for those who need them most and delivering prominent schemes that making a difference to their communities.  She also loves to solve a problem!

Away from the office Elizabeth loves property renovation and architecture and is married to Ashton, who also works in Development. Together they have Ralph, their 1-year old, and live together in Kent with Ashton’s children, so has a very busy household!