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Simon Dudley appointed as chair of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation established in 2015 to deliver the new Ebbsfleet Garden City in North Kent.

Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP has today (26 January 2021) confirmed Simon Dudley has been appointed as the new chairman of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.

The 4-year appointment follows a fair and open recruitment process, after which the Prime Minister confirmed his suitability for the role.

Simon’s appointment follows Michael Cassidy CBE ending 6 successful years as Chair of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation’s board.

Simon is the former leader of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council where he served from 2007 to 2019. He became a non-executive director of Homes England in 2017, becoming Senior Independent Director and then Interim Chair between the summer 2019 and the autumn of 2020.

The Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC) is the Urban Development Corporation established by government in 2015 to deliver the new Ebbsfleet Garden City in North Kent.

Ebbsfleet Garden City is the first Garden City for over 100 years and one of the largest housing developments on brownfield sites in the UK.

With well over 2,000 quality new homes, the Garden City has the potential to create around 30,000 new job opportunities.

New communities, such as Ebbsfleet Garden City make an important contribution to the government ambition of delivering 300,000 new homes per year.

Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said:

I am delighted to announce Simon Dudley has been appointed as the new chairman of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation and would like to thank Michael Cassidy for his sterling work over the past 6 years.

The Ebbsfleet, Northfleet and Swanscombe area has huge potential to create not only new homes, but also a vibrant community where people want to live and work. We look forward to working with him and wish him every success in helping to deliver a garden city of which we can all be proud.

Simon Dudley, incoming Chairman of EDC said:

The creation of Ebbsfleet Garden City is a fantastic opportunity to grow a new community and business location where London meets the Garden of England.

Building on a series of brownfield sites in one of the best-connected locations in England, we aim to deliver a vibrant new city of up to 15,000 new homes.

I’m absolutely thrilled to be appointed by the Prime Minister to one of the most successful regeneration projects in the country and I can’t wait to start.

Further information

Simon Dudley biography:

• Simon is the former leader of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council where he served from 2007 to 2019.
• Simon became a non-executive director of Homes England in 2017, becoming Senior Independent Director and then Interim Chair between the summer 2019 and the autumn of 2020.
• After a 30-year career working for HSBC, Svenska Handelsbanken, he became partner of his own structured finance advisory business, a managing director in Fixed Income at Citigroup Global Markets and then spent some years in private equity.
• Simon has an expertise in infrastructure finance, having worked extensively on the £16 billion take-private of the airport operator BAA (Heathrow airport) in 2006 and leading the refinancing of it in 2008; which concluded just before the Global Financial Crisis.
• During his time as leader of the Council, Simon was instrumental in advancing their Borough Local Plan and establishing two joint ventures with Countryside Properties and Cala Homes as part of the regeneration of Maidenhead town centre.
• He has also founded two free schools; one a state boarding school called Holyport College which he founded with Eton College and another called Forest Bridge School which is a special free school for children on the autistic spectrum.

For further information from MHCLG please contact: NewsDesk@communities.gov.uk / 24 hour news desk: 0303 444 1209

For further information from Ebbsfleet Development Corporation please contact: Mark Templeton, Head of Communications: Email: mark.templeton@ebbsfleetdc.org.uk  /  0303 444 2160

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