We love finding out about the people we work with and our Mash Meets podcast series, hosted by our MD Mash Halai, is one way we get to do just that.

Mash recently sat down with Vicky Savage, executive group director of development and sales at Housing Association, L&Q to talk about her time in the housing sector and delivering homes to the people that need them.

With a love for geography from an early age, Vicky Savage went on to study urban housing and housing studies then seamlessly started her career as a development assistant for a housing association.

Now, Vicky is in charge of L&Qs housing development programme and is as excited and passionate about making an impact within social housing and regeneration today, as she was when she first started out.

Here’s a snippet of that conversation…

So, the first question, Vicky, is how did you get into the affordable housing sector?

It’s funny when you talk to people in our sector, Mash – they often say, I just sort of fell into it. My path was a bit more directed because I always loved geography and always loved urban geography – learning about cities and settlements and how they all happened.

So, I went on to do a degree in urban planning. And then a lot of the urban planning degree was about housing, poverty and regeneration. Following that degree, I did a postgraduate just in housing studies. And then from housing studies, I went into a housing association as a development assistant. I worked really hard and volunteered for every project that was going and every few years got promoted to now being in my dream job, being in charge of L&Q’s development and sales programme, the biggest in the UK.

That brings me on nicely to working for L&Q, one of the most well-known and largest HA’s in the sector. So, what’s it like to be there?

It’s a really lovely place. We have a female CEO, which is quite unusual. The place is very warm, caring, friendly. Although it’s a big and complex organisation – we employ 4,000 people – the structures are pretty flat, so people can just get on with their job.

And innovation is encouraged. We’re brave, we’re visionary, we want to do new things all the time and people will work together to try and do new things. I have a fantastic team. We’ve got about 600 people in the development team. Quite unique in the sector that we have our own in-house build team as well. I’ve been blessed to have that team because they’re a trusted, talented group of people who can go in and just fix problems for us, as well as doing really exciting new builds. It’s a great team to be in charge of. I’m very fortunate.

And good partnership is vital.

Yes, it is. I think projects are a bit like a marriage – your project will go through its highs and lows so you need a partner who understands your values and your processes.

When I arrived at L&Q, I was very concerned about some of our projects. I got on the phone to you, and you said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll go down there, have a look, walk around and talk to people,’ so, you were almost walking in my shoes. And I think you need partners who can walk in your shoes. Because we’re dealing with public money, we of ten do have a certain set of bureaucratic processes we have to go through. We don’t just go and sit in front of the MD and the MD says yes or no. We write reports, we have to go through processes so you need someone who understands that.

I do think the best of partners, John Rowan and Partners being one of them, you don’t just look at this project, you’re looking for the next project and future projects. We’re all in it together. And I think that’s what you need from a good partner.

We’ve known each other for almost 20 years and, like you, I’ve been in the sector for most of my career and I really love seeing regeneration. What do you enjoy the most about the housing sector?

We want to make change and deliver exciting new projects, so I think building new homes is a really fantastic thing to do. Homelessness is at crisis levels. One in 23 children in the capital sleep in a temporary home each night. Local authorities are spending £90 million in London collectively each month on temporary homeless solutions. Now what a waste of money. You know, what we need to do is build more homes. That is the solution. That’s what motivates me to be in this sector.

I do think quality homes are life-changing, if you give people good homes that can be the foundation for better lives. As a sector, there was a time that we sort of lost our way a bit and we got tempted by very shiny new projects. But then we looked again at our core purpose, the needs of our customers and building really good social rented homes, building really good, shared ownership homes and looking after that segment of the residential buyer, you know, rather than getting carried away with things. So, I like that return to values, I think that that is a really good thing.

And finally, what’s the plan for the next 12 months and your vision for the next five years?

At L&Q, we have a fantastic development team. We also have a fantastic set of partners. You guys are there, you’re all ready to do more projects, build more homes. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing how we can unlock this, how we can work with partners to unlock capacity and just keep building homes. The need is there, the demand is there, we need to just give the supply to enable people to have that foundation for life, that springboard for life that people need to get better outcomes.