I was invited to join TANT to bring experience of National Trust restrictive covenants to the Association. I started my career as a solicitor in 1994 and in 2000 moved over into the property sector, establishing an award-winning company specialising in restoring historic buildings. Following retirement from that work, I run a small farm and am voluntary chair of a charity.

Like other members of TANT, I have been a tenant at various stages in my life and am now a landlord and understand the responsibility it brings. The National Trust has clear strategies on caring for heritage and the environment; I am keen that it builds its strategy for social responsibility to care for the people who live in the places it owns and influences. It is one of the largest landowners and wealthiest charities in the UK and therefore in a unique position to lead the way in managing its property interests for the benefit of everybody.

Through volunteering with TANT, I would like to help improve the lives of people living and working in National Trust properties and people struggling with National Trust restrictive covenants. I would like to encourage the introduction of a proper procedure for handling restrictive covenant applications with fixed timescales and an independent arbitration procedure; the current system is slow and counter-productive creating disputes rather than developing partnerships.