The UK is facing a housing crisis. In England alone, it's estimated there are eight-and-a half million people, who can’t access the housing they need – and two million of those people are children. The housing shortage also disproportionately affects marginalised groups including disabled communities, refugees and other minority groups.
At the same time, housing and real estate have often formed a traditional part of an investment portfolio, with pension schemes benefitting from the inflation linkage property investments provide.
In this session, we will explore whether investors can, and should, be involved in solving the shortage of affordable houses in the UK, how this may manifest in practice, and some of the investment benefits (and risks) of housing in a pension fund portfolio.
We are delighted to be joined by a panel of speakers from Kettel Homes, Resonance and and Debbie Fielder, formerly of Clwyd Pension Fund and Non Executive Director of Pensions for Purpose.
Following the discussion, we will move to breakout rooms of mixed stakeholders, led by a number of our Community Partners: AXA Investment Managers, Downing and EY.
Who is this event for?
This event is open to all our members. If your organisation is yet to join Pensions for Purpose you may attend an event before deciding whether to sign up, so please register for a trial session.
Speakers
Trevor Stunden, CEO and Founding Partner, Kettel Homes
Founded in 2022, Kettel Homes is the UK’s leading private rent-to-own platform focused on helping first-time buyers get onto the property ladder. Kettel Homes offers a structured and scalable alternative to traditional homeownership routes, providing customers with the opportunity to move into a new home today while saving towards a purchase over three to five years. The Kettel Homes platform empowers institutional investors to deploy capital into single-family housing in strategically targeted region – driving local housing delivery, expanding access to homeownership for residents and aligning with broader place-based impact investment objectives.
Before launching Kettel, Trevor was part of the founding executive team at Residently, a tenant experience platform now managing over 12,000 tenancies in the UK. Residently works with leading real estate partners like Touchstone, Lloyd’s Living, PGIM, Patrizia and Savills Investment Management.
Trevor holds an MBA from IESE Business School in Spain and a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Organisational Studies from Western University in Canada.
Chris Cullen, Fund Manager, Resonance
Chris is focused on funds that provide housing for people at risk of homelessness. He is responsible for investment raising, relationships with housing partners and their ongoing management of the homelessness funds.
Chris joined Resonance as he believes social impact investing has the potential to make a material difference to people’s lives. He cares about equality and hopes to use his finance skills to help create better life chances for everyone. In his early career, he spent 13 years as a financial markets’ trader, running currency option trading teams at J.P. Morgan and Barclays Capital. Chris is a CFA charterholder and he is interested in measuring social impact risk to drive better investment decision making.
Debbie Fielder, Non-Executive Director, Pensions for Purpose and formerly of Clwyd Pension Fund
Debbie retired in 2024. Her previous role was the Deputy Head of the Clwyd Pension Fund, a £2.4bn Local Government Pension Scheme and a member of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP).
Her responsibilities covered all investment and governance aspects within the fund, but her particular interest and passion was impact and place-based investing in the private market portfolio.
Debbie continues to keep her position as a Non-Executive Director of Pensions for Purpose.
In her retirement, Debbie plans to spend as much time as Brexit allows in the Murcia region of Spain.
Breakout room moderators
Claudia Sanchez, Sales & Client Relations Manager, AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM)
Claudia is responsible for managing and developing clients in the UK and Nordic region. Before joining AXA IM in 2023, she held business development and management roles at Alliance Bernstein, focused on institutional and retail clients in the UK and in Europe. Claudia is an advocate of a dual investment objective – seeking financial returns while having a positive impact on the world – and being a good corporate citizen. To advance these ideals, she has founded a women’s group and wellbeing groups.
Claudia holds an MSc in Development Studies from the University of London, UK and a BA in International Economics and International Affairs from James Madison University, Virginia, USA.
Bill Manahan, Director of Institutional Solutions, Downing
Bill joined Downing in July 2023 as a Director of Institutional Solutions. He has a wealth of experience in the institutional space – private markets, risk management – across fundraising and business development. He holds a degree in Commerce from University College Dublin and has a post graduate diploma in Law from the Department for international Trade (DIT).
Paul Kitson, UK Head of Pensions Consulting, Partner, EY
Paul is an Actuary and Partner at EY, and is UK Head of Pensions Consulting, a team of over 100 actuaries, investment consultants, governance experts and data scientists. Paul has worked with some of the largest pension schemes and their corporate sponsors in the UK, including ground-breaking transactions. Paul is currently advising clients on run-on strategies and how these can be delivered in an equitable way to all stakeholders, including members, trustees and company sponsors.
Host
Laasya Shekaran, Director, Pensions for Purpose
Laasya is responsible for working with our Community, developing content and knowledge, and driving forward collaborative initiatives across the industry.
Laasya is passionate about approaching pensions and investment with a systems lens and understanding how these sectors interact with the wider social and environmental systems they exist within.
Laasya is a CFA charterholder with experience working with a range of asset owners as an investment adviser, with a focus on corporate defined benefit pensions. Laasya is a regular speaker at industry conferences and events, and is also an experienced podcast host, currently hosting the Pensions for Purpose podcast. Laasya is an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion and is particularly passionate about anti-racism activism. She has previously won the Women in Pensions and Women in Investment Rising Star awards.
Pensions for Purpose
Pensions for Purpose exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. Our aim is to empower pension funds to seek positive impact opportunities and mitigate negative impact risks.
Our Community allows members to learn from leaders in the impact investment industry. We provide a trusted environment to interact, collaborate and share knowledge. Members engage in a programme of activity to shape their strategy in ESG, sustainable and impact investments.
For more information, please email the Membership Manager.
Phone:
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