Legal & General has strengthened its Future Cities business with two key appointments.

The Future Cities business sets out to tackle some of the major challenges facing UK towns and cities, including poor air quality, low housing supply, social issues and congestion through urban regeneration, clean energy, infrastructure and technology. The business has so far invested almost £1bn in 15 UK towns and cities — including Newcastle, Sunderland, Cardiff, Leeds, Bath, Manchester and Oxford.

Jennie Hill will take on the newly created role of Chief Commercial Director at Future Cities, where she will identify opportunities to create commercial value through leveraging partnerships within and outside the Legal & General Group.

Jennie Hill joined Legal & General's General Insurance business in March 2019 as MD of Distribution and Partnerships, overseeing its recently completed sale to Allianz Group. Before joining L&G, Hill worked as Director of Business Services for the AA and, prior to that, Head of the Commercial Payments Business at Lloyds Banking Group. She has extensive experience in relationship building across large private- and public-sector organisations. In her new role, she will report to John Cummins, MD of Future Cities.

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The addition of Alexandra Brown as Senior Development Manager, Urban Regeneration, further enhances the Future Cities team. Having worked at a number of leading developers, including 12 years at Lendlease, Alexandra brings development management expertise on large scale regeneration projects and will oversee the development of Legal & General Capital's Urban Regeneration portfolio. As the group continues to expand its real estate portfolio, Alexandra will bring her extensive experience of the design, planning and conversion of complex projects to help the business realise its aspirations for place creation, stakeholder engagement and overall project performance. 

John Cummins, MD of Future Cities at Legal & General Capital said: "Legal & General has a world-class team in place to help challenge some of the biggest threats facing society today: poverty, housing shortages, ill-health and climate change. By identifying clear commercial opportunities for investment, the Future Cities team can fast-track the redevelopment of UK towns and cities, helping them better respond to wider environmental and social needs.

"Jennie will help us continue to form strong networks both within and outside the Legal & General Group so that we're bringing the best value to our investors and to the communities we work in.

"Alexandra has extensive experience managing highly complex place-making projects, helping to drive social impact while simultaneously ensuring developments meet exceptional standards of sustainability, design and commercial viability."

(CM/MH)