Victoria Hills to stand down as Chief Executive of Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation
The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) has today announced that Victoria Hills is standing down from her position as Chief Executive Officer.
Victoria has been Chief Executive of OPDC since June 2015 and is leaving the organisation to become Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
OPDC is the local planning authority and regeneration agency for the 650 hectare site in west London and is the second Mayoral Development Corporation in the capital, alongside the London Legacy Development Corporation.
OPDC aims to maximise the potential of one of the UK’s biggest development sites, with the capacity to deliver 25,500 new homes and 65,000 jobs.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I would like to thank Victoria for her leadership, commitment and dedication as Chief Executive of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation. This is one of the most important regeneration sites in London with capacity for thousands of genuinely affordable homes.”
Victoria Hills said: “It has been my great privilege to have had the opportunity to establish a new Mayoral Development Corporation and to lead an enthusiastic and skilled team with whom I have been able to create a vision and framework for delivering this enormously complex project. I shall be watching the development of Old Oak and Park Royal with interest and huge affection and I wish the team and my successor well in their future endeavours.”
The Chairman of OPDC, Liz Peace CBE, said: “Victoria has been a key figure in setting up the OPDC and leading it through its challenging early years. She has done a great job in managing the multiple relationships with the Board and key stakeholders, and has played a clear role in enhancing the impact and profile of the of Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Area. I am extremely grateful to all that Victoria has done to date and whilst we will all be sad to see her move on, I believe that she has left the ground well prepared for taking forward this exciting regeneration project. On behalf of the Board I would like to wish her all the very best for a successful future with the RTPI.”
There are almost 11,000 housing units in the planning system at Old Oak. Construction of the first 600 homes on the Oaklands site at Old Oak commenced in September 2017.
Victoria will be leaving OPDC in April. An interim appointment will be confirmed in due course along with the timetable for recruiting a permanent successor.
The Royal Town Planning Institute is the UK’s leading planning body for spatial, sustainable and inclusive planning and is the largest planning institute in Europe with over 24,000 members.
