Our governance
Find out about National Housing Bank's board and committees.
National Housing Bank Board
Homes England is governed by a board that decides what its priorities are.
Board members
The board members are:
Peter Vernon — Chair
Peter Vernon has an extensive senior career in property, regeneration and management consultancy. He is a Senior Advisor at Places for London and Chair of Grosvenor Hart Homes.
Peter was Group Executive Director of Grosvenor until 2021, having previously served as Chief Executive of Grosvenor Property UK between 2008 to 2017. Prior to Grosvenor he was a Partner with PwC Consulting. He has held Non-Executive Director roles for organisations including The Berkeley Group plc, BusinessLDN, and the West End Partnership. He also served as a Trustee of Peabody.
Peter was a member of the Policy Committee of the British Property Federation, the government’s Montague Review of the Private Rented Sector, a commissioner of the independent City Growth Commission and a member of the Government Estates Regeneration Panel.
Simon Century — Chief Executive Officer, National Housing Bank
Simon Century is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Housing Bank, having joined Homes England in 2025 as Chief Investment Officer.
He is responsible for leading the Bank’s investment strategy and partnerships to accelerate housing delivery nationwide.
Prior to joining, Simon spent 9 years at Legal & General as Managing Director, where he built and grew multiple housing businesses across social and affordable housing, build to rent, senior living, and build to sale, as well as pioneering platforms for modern methods of construction.
Simon began his career at investment and advisory firm TradeRisks and later at the affordable housing provider bpha, leading corporate strategy and finance.
He is a full member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, holds a certificate in investment management from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, and has a psychology degree from the University of Liverpool.
Ros Kerslake CBE — Non-Executive Director
Ros Kerslake CBE has more than 20 years’ board level experience in the property and regeneration sectors, serving as chief executive, non-executive director and chair for a number of public and private sector organisations.
Previously she was Chief Executive Officer of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, overseeing around £400 million per annum of project investment, alongside a major organisation transformation programme of the UK-wide body. Her earlier roles include Chief Executive of The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, leading urban regeneration across the UK, Chief Executive for Regen Co, Sandwell, and Director of Property at Network Rail.
Ros is a trustee for the regeneration charity Reform and the University College of Estate Management. She chairs 2 charities, the Leeds Castle Foundation and the Architectural Heritage Fund. She is also on the board of Sanctuary Group. She was awarded a CBE in 2020 for services to British heritage and an OBE in 2016 for services to heritage. She is a qualified solicitor.
Amy Rees CB — Non-Executive Director — Chief Executive Officer, Homes England
Amy Rees became Chief Executive of Homes England in September 2025, bringing extensive leadership experience across public service delivery and justice reform.
Prior to joining Homes England, Amy served as Interim Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, where she oversaw the full breadth of the department’s responsibilities — including criminal justice, prison and probation services, civil, family and criminal courts, legal services, and constitutional policy.
Before that, Amy was Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) for nearly 3 years. As HMPPS CEO and Accounting Officer, she provided strategic direction and operational leadership to the Agency, working closely with partners across government and the justice system to enforce court orders, protect the public, and reduce reoffending throughout England and Wales.
Chris Taylor, Non-Executive Director
Chris Taylor is Chair of Real Estate and a Senior Vice President at Federated Hermes Limited, as well as Chair of MEPC, a leading UK placemaking and regeneration developer. He has overseen major regeneration projects such as King’s Cross, Paradise Birmingham, NOMA Manchester, Wellington Place Leeds, Silverstone, and central Milton Keynes.
Chris joined Federated Hermes in 2010 after establishing QIC’s European office and previously served as Head of European Property at HSBC. Earlier in his career at Prudential, he led the diversification of UK real estate investments into international markets.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, former senior non-executive director at NewRiver Retail Plc, member of the Bank of England Commercial Property Committee, and founding board member of INREV. A former President of the British Property Federation, Chris has actively worked with government to promote real estate’s role in economic growth. A Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School, he holds a BSc (Hons) in Land Management from Reading University.
Simon Pistell, Non-Executive Director
Simon Pistell, currently Risk Director at Legal & General, Simon served as Chief Risk Officer (CRO) for LGIM, the UK’s largest fund manager, and for the past 6 years as CRO of L&G Capital, overseeing housing and regeneration businesses. His remit included major housing areas such as L&G Modular Housing, Build-to-Rent, Affordable Housing, Cala Homes, Strategic Land, together with urban regeneration, clean energy, and venture businesses. He was a key member or advisor across all relevant boards, committees, and governance structures.
Previously, Simon held senior leadership roles across multiple L&G business units, including MD L&G Retail Investments, MD L&G Bank and a fixed income fund manager.
A qualified actuary with a mathematics degree, Simon has deep expertise in investment management, risk management, corporate finance, real estate and housing, markets and economics.
James Coppin, UK Government Investments (UKGI) — Non-Executive Director
James Coppin joined UK Government Investments (formerly the Shareholder Executive) in March 2014. He has worked on a variety of corporate finance and governance projects, including government investments into industry and government asset sales.
His governance work has included serving as the Shareholder appointed Non-Executive Director on the Board of Ordnance Survey Limited, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, and on the Board of BIS (Postal Services Act 2011) Company Limited, a holding company for certain real estate, private equity and high yield bond assets.
Major government sales worked on include the 2 public equity offerings of Royal Mail shares that removed Royal Mail from public sector ownership and advising the Department for Transport on Network Rail’s sale of around 5,000 railway arches. Corporate finance projects have included advising the Department of Health and Social Care on transactions relating to the provision of indemnity cover for GPs and working with the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce on negotiating agreements with vaccine manufacturers to secure vaccines and manufacturing capacity as part of the UK’s response to COVID-19. In June 2021, James was awarded an OBE for his services to the Vaccine Taskforce in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Prior to joining UKGI, James spent 10 years working in corporate finance, first on the sell side in investment banking and, immediately prior to joining UKGI, on the buy side, at a hedge fund. He started his career at Bank of America, working in London and New York.
James holds an Economics degree from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
National Housing Bank Board meetings
The board meets monthly. We will provide summaries of National Housing Bank board meetings shortly.