Savills northern planning team expands with new recruits

International real estate advisor Savills has expanded its northern planning team with five new recruits across the firm’s Leeds and Manchester offices.

Matt Burrow will be based in the Savills Leeds office at Wellington Place as an associate planner following eight years in planning at Persimmon Homes. Some of Matt’s recent projects for Persimmon include a reserved matters application for 450 dwellings on the East Leeds Extension: Northern Quadrant and reserved matters approval for 450 homes at Laneside Farm, Morley, Leeds.

Sophie Moore and Will Rogers have both joined the team as senior planners. Predominantly based in the Savills Leeds office, Will joins from Harrogate-based Planning Potential. His experience covers a broad range of projects, particularly in the leisure, healthcare and residential sectors. Prior to his days at Planning Potential, Will also worked for many years in public consultation and stakeholder engagement.

Based in the firm’s Manchester office on Booth Street, Sophie joins from Berrys where she worked as a planning consultant. Sophie has worked on a wide range of planning applications across a number of sectors including, residential, agricultural and commercial schemes. Whilst working at Berrys, Sophie was involved in projects such as barn conversions, holiday let sites and the change of use of agricultural units to provide commercial uses, as well as residential schemes.

The team has also recently recruited two new graduates with Ben Parkes joining the Leeds office having completed an MPlan degree at the University of Sheffield, whilst Alex Wylie has joined the Manchester office following completion of his Masters degree in Planning at the University of Manchester.

The news follows the recent appointment of Matthew Gibbs who joined the firm as a director in the northern planning team November last year, working across Yorkshire and the North West.

Adam Key, director and head of planning comments: “We have a strong presence across the north of England and Matt, Sophie, Will, Ben and Alex have joined us at an exciting time in the team’s evolution as we continue to grow our services.”