St. Modwen hires James Lidgate for key strategic land and planning role

St. Modwen has appointed the former Legal & General and CALA Homes executive, James Lidgate, as Senior Director – Strategic Land & Planning to support the ongoing development of major residential schemes and drive future initiatives. Starting on an initial 12-month contract, James will join the board of St. Modwen’s dedicated Strategic Land & Regeneration business unit.

Sitting alongside St. Modwen’s other industrial and logistics and housebuilding businesses, Strategic Land & Regeneration focuses on promoting and master-developing new residential communities, including releasing land for house-building and other housing tenures, as well as delivering transformational regeneration projects. Over the past five years, St. Modwen has prepared over 1,600 acres of land for development and completed over £400m of residential land sales.

James was most recently CEO of Legal & General Homes, Regional Chairman of CALA Homes’ Chiltern and South Home Counties business as well as being responsible for Legal & General’s Strategic Land and Major Projects business. James also worked on developing L&G’s Build to Rent platform and helped to shape its approach to modular construction. Before this, James worked at Bellway Homes as a Land Director, managing the acquisition of all land opportunities and was previously in roles at St George and Berkeley Group.

Guy Gusterson, Managing Director – Strategic Land & Regeneration at St. Modwen, said:

“With his blend of housebuilding, mixed tenure and strategic land experience, James joins us at an opportune time to help develop our approach to creating future communities that respond to the evolving needs of customers. James will support new and existing projects, and further strengthen our relationships with strategic partners as we look at new opportunities. James’s decision to join our business further reinforces the trajectory we are on and the team and I greatly look forward to working with him.”