SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Phil Agulnik, Director, Entitledto
Phil is an expert on the UK’s benefits and tax system. He is responsible for product development within entitledto and for representing the company externally. He has worked as an economist in the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and in academia. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics on social security policy.
Darren Baker, Head of LA-PED FED, Change & Communications Team, DWP
For the last 7 years Darren has led the Fraud, Error & Debt/ Change and Communications team as part of LA-PED in DWP. He has been involved with local government and welfare services on and off since 1991. Darren started his career at Chester City Council and worked across all aspects of the Housing Benefit Service. He then went it alone and started contracting around other LAs, managing their IT system migrations. Eventually Darren found himself working at DWP in 2004 on the Performance Standards Fund, which he eventually managed, funding LAs a total of £200m for improvement projects.
John Berry, Director for Business Design and Policy, VOA
John is currently the Director for Business Design and Policy for the VOA’s NextGen Rating Programme. This has 2 elements, firstly replacing the VOA’s entire IT platform and secondly layering on the new services required as part of the government’s Transforming Business Rates agenda. He was previously Director of Property Professional Services in the VOA covering legal/technical policy, advice and guidance, valuation assurance, budgets and resources, and oversight over the VOA’s surveyor development pipeline. He has been a co-opted member of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation’s (IRRV) Valuation Faculty Board for a number of years and is a member of the RICS Yorkshire and Humber Regional Board. He currently lives in Derbyshire on the edge of the Peak District National Park and spends much of his spare time walking in the locality.
Paula Doherty, Revenues and Benefits Operations Team Leader, Dumfries & Galloway Council
Paula started her career with Dumfries & Galloway Council in January 2000 as a Clerical Assistant with responsibility for a stapler in the filing room. The introduction of a document management system and the many and varied changes since 2000 saw her career within Revenue Services develop.
Current remit includes:
• Housing Benefit - including overpayment recovery
• Council Tax Reduction
• Scottish Welfare Fund
• Discretionary Housing Payments
• Financial Assessments for care at home and residential care
• Income Maximisation
• Welfare and Housing Options
• Council Tax administration
• Non-Domestic Rates
Paula is immediate past president of the IRRV Scottish Association, chair of the IRRV Welfare Reform consortium and current Education Liaison Officer for Scotland. As an active member of the IRRV Paula is a firm believer that by working together we can meet the challenges ahead.
Matthew Evans, Head of Service Revenues & Benefits, Wrexham County Borough Council
Matthew is Head of Service for the Revenues and Benefits service, and has over 20 years of experience in Revenues & Benefits in a number of different roles. Matthew is the current chair of the Welsh Revenues & Benefit Manager Group and is involved in a number of working groups relating to Revenues and Benefits both locally and nationally and works closely with Welsh Government in relation to regulations and policy development in this area. Matthew is a past president of the North and Mid Wales Association.
Mark Fearn, Customer Experience Lead (Revenues, Income Recovery & Debt), Walsall MBC
Mark has worked within the Revenues arena for almost forty years and is currently the Customer Experience Lead (Revenues, Income Recovery & Debt) at Walsall MBC. His previous posts have included Revenues Manager at Milton Keynes Council, Head of Revenues at North West Leicestershire DC and Revenue Collection Manager at South Derbyshire District Council. Mark is a Council Member of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and is currently Chair of the institutes Local Taxation and Revenue Faculty Board. He is a regular speaker at the IRRV national events had articles published in the Institutes journal and carried out training across the country.
Christopher Grose, Director - Business Rates, Hartnell Taylor Cook
Christopher is a Director in the Business Rate team at Hartnell Taylor Cook. Having joined the business rates world in the run up to the 1990 revaluation he has dealt with appeals on many different property types in every Revaluation since including a spell in the Valuation Office. Christopher is Vice Chair of the IRRV Valuation Faculty, Secretary of the London & Home Counties IRRV Association and a member of IRRV Council.
Ian Ferguson, Client Development Manager, Dukes Bailiffs Limited
Ian worked in the Revenues and Benefits environment for over 40 years and was up until 2016 the Revenues and Benefits manager for Durham County Council. Following his retirement from the Council he worked for JBW as a Business Develpment Manager before joining Believe Housing as their Income Recovery Managerfor the period 2017 to 2022. He is currently employed by Dukes Bailiffs Limited as their Client Development Manager. As well as serving on the Northern Counties Association Executive, where he is currently their President, he is also a member of the Institutes National Council and has served as national President. He has been an active member of the Institute for many years speaking at various conferences and meetings regarding the changing face of the Revenues and Benefits landscape.
Louise Freeth, Assistant Director of Revenues, Benefits, Library & Resident Services, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
Louise started work, over 30 years ago, in Port Talbot Borough Council benefits section as a clerical assistant, during the days of Community Charge Benefit. Since that time Louise has gained experience in a range of roles at various local authorities and within the private sector. Louise has been a member of the Benefits Faculty Board and of the IRRV national Council for a number of years as well as being a former national President.
Admas Habteslasie, Barrister, Landmark Chambers
Robert Hayle, Revenues and Benefits Team Leader, Milton Keynes CC
Robert has worked at Milton Keynes City Council for 14 years, initially in Planning Enforcement before switching careers to Revenues and Benefits. After completing the Certificate for Local Taxation and Welfare Benefits, he became the Revenues Technical Officer focussing primarily on protecting the public purse and increasing the Council’s rate yield. Robert is now one of the Council’s Revenues and Benefits Team Leaders, leading a small hard working team of practitioners specialising in the collection and enforcement of Business Rates.
Andrew Hetherton, Director of Andrew Hetherton Consulting Ltd
Andrew is a Director of Andrew Hetherton Consulting Ltd and a real estate and property tax consultant. He has 30 years of experience as a consultant in private practice dealing with wider range of property types. Andrew is an elected member of IRRV Council and Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee. He is also the Managing Editor of the IRRV Insight and Valuer publications. He is one of a number of Institute represents on the Professional Bodies Liaison Group, Valuation Tribunal and Upper Tribunal User Groups. He is also a member of the RICS Local Taxation and Policy Group and the RSA Committee. Andrew is a member of the International Property Tax Institute (IPTI), an Associate of the International Assessing Officers Association (IAAO) and also member of the Compulsory Purchase Association (CPA). Andrew is an Associate Tutor at the University for the Built Environment (formerly known as the University College of Estate Management) and the Course Leader for the IRRV’s Certificate in Rating.
Clive Jones, Now Retired but former Head of Revenues, Benefits and Assessments, Buckinghamshire Council
Now retired from April 2025, Clive was the former Head of Revenues, Benefits and Assessments at Buckinghamshire Council. Very experienced at creating revenues and benefits single teams when unitarys are formed having done this at Central Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire Councils, More recently at Buckinghamshire merging 4 districts and a county with 4 systems and teams into a single effective system and team.
Zoe Kent, Head of Revenues & Benefits, Mid Kent Services
Zoe’s career started at the DHSS working on Supplementary Benefit and then Income Support. After a career break she moved into Local Government in 2003 working on the frontline of the Housing Benefit team at Swale Borough Council, then moving on to the roles of Training Officer, Assistant Revenues and Benefits Manager and from 2015 Revenues and Benefits Manager. Zoe worked with the DWP to set up the Kent Overpayments Network, to ensure that overpayment officers were able to meet, to discuss good practice and bring in new initiatives. She obtained her full IRRV qualification in 2010 and has been on the IRRV SE Association executive for many years becoming an IRRV Council Member in October 2018.
Jim McCafferty, Portfolio Holder: Education and Membership, IRRV
Jim has served on the national council for over 10 years and is currently Education & Membership portfolio holder. He is a Past President of the IRRV and a member of the IRRV Benefits and Revenues Faculty Boards. Jim was also President of the IRRV Scottish Association. He has lectured for the IRRV in both England and Scotland. He has been a speaker at many conferences and seminars in the UK and presented papers on local taxation in the USA and the Netherlands. Jim has also represented the IRRV in giving evidence to Scottish Government Committees and various consultative bodies. Jim has worked for several councils in England and Scotland and for the Valuation Tribunal Service. Jim worked for West Lothian Council as Revenues and Benefits Manager and also as Corporate Procurement Manager. He was a member of the DAS Review Board. He has held Revenues and Benefits Manager 10 times including on two separate occasions at two councils. He has worked as a consultant for several clients including Councils in England and Scotland, RSLs, IT Suppliers and the Scottish Government where he produced a report on Council Tax Reduction Reviews As Project Manager, Jim returned Revenues and Benefits and IT Services to in-house provision following the break–up of a shared service. He also took part in a feasibility study for a large Council bringing its Revenues service in house after a lengthy period of outsourcing. This gives him a rare insight into what can cause a shared service to fail and what you should do to protect against this. Jim has also held an interim position as Revenues and Benefits Development Manager for BT Lancashire Services between December 2015 and December 2016. In 2017 he worked an assignment with Birmingham City Council supporting their management in the return of the Revenues Service to in-house provision. Following on from that he has held interim senior management roles at several councils including Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Melton Borough Council and Richmondshire District Council.
Clare McCormick IRRV MBA, Associate, Cushman & Wakefield
Clare joined the rating team at Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 as a Senior Business Rates Manager. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Clare spent 18 years working for a number of local authorities in Northamptonshire dealing with all aspects of revenues, including non-domestic rates and council tax, providing an insight to local authority policies and procedures and the challenges faced by both local authorities and ratepayers. Clare is currently responsible for the Business Rates Finance Team in the Birmingham office as well as the account management of key investor and occupier clients, historic rates audit service, advising and implement mitigation strategies, and identifying and developing new business opportunities. Clare is consistently one of the department's highest fee earners generating income through audit, mitigation, discretionary relief applications and identifying CCA opportunities and successfully led Cushman & Wakefield’s submission and presentation in winning the 2019 IRRV Excellence in Non-Domestic Rates.
Sarah Naylor, Sales Director, Dukes Bailiffs Limited
An experienced enforcement professional, Sarah has drawn on her deep roots in the sector to provide impactful industry leadership. A strategic thinker and advocate of technical innovation, she’s led practice modernisation at company and industry level, balancing effective debt recovery with compassion for vulnerable individuals. A Management Board member at Dukes Bailiffs, Sarah has positioned her family’s business as a trusted provider of ethical enforcement, with industry-award recognition for data-led technological innovation. As President of the Civil Enforcement Association, Sarah represented the industry on BBC Breakfast and Radio 4’s You and Yours, channelling her characteristically calm and reasoned professional approach to help viewers to distinguish genuine enforcement officers from scam bailiffs. A young female leader in a traditionally male-dominated sector, Sarah’s fresh and relatable voice makes her a much-sought- after speaker, and an apt Co-chair of Women in Revenue Enforcement. She was shortlisted for a Women-in-Enforcement Award in 2024.
Richard New, Partner, Mills & Reeve
Richard is the national head of Mills & Reeve's real estate disputes team, assisting clients in the avoidance or settlement of complex disputes. Richard's disputes team spans 5 offices and can help with 'on the ground' litigation requirements as well as strategic advice. Richard has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial and residential property disputes, with infrastructure and regeneration projects being a particular focus. Richard also resolves corporate occupier issues. He is perhaps best-known for his work in business rates, where he is noted as a leader in his field and one of few solicitors with deep knowledge of the rating system. He has helped some of the largest occupiers in the UK to save millions of pounds and has been involved in reported Tribunal, Magistrates' Court, High Court and Court of Appeal actions such as Cyxtera, Buzz Bingo, Principled Offsite Logistics, Hammerson v Gowlett, Store First v Moore, Great Bear, and Avison Young v Jackson.
Stephanie O’Neill, Partner, Wilks Head & Eve
Stephanie is a Partner at Wilks Head & Eve LLP who specialises in Valuation for Business Rates purposes on behalf of ratepayers. Stephanie has experience of assessments across a wide range of property types, from bulk descriptions of industrial, retail, offices to the unusual, such as Waste Plants and Crematoria. Stephanie’s Practice has a number of public sector Local Authority clients who are business property taxpayers in their own right, as well as tax collectors and Taxing Authorities. In addition to rating appeal work Stephanie deals with more complex issues in relation to s44a, empty rates and Completion Notice issues and undertakes a range of one-off Red Book Valuations. Stephanie is a highly experienced Business Rates Valuer and Practitioner and a member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) and a member of the Rating Surveyors Association (RSA).
Kevin Pound, Head of Compliance, VOA
Kevin has been the Head of Compliance at the Valuation Office Agency since May 2024. This is an emerging field for the VOA, and he is responsible for developing and implementing the customer compliance strategy. Kevin joined the VOA in 1985. His experience includes a wide range of technical and leadership roles, most recently as Head of Valuation Assurance. He is a Chartered Surveyor and a Chartered Manager.
Laura Slade, Business Rates Manager (Valuation & Data Analysis), City of London Corporation
Laura has been the Business Rates Manager for Valuation and Data Analysis at the City of London Corporation since 2022. With over 20 years experience working within Local Authority Revenues for both the public and private sectors. She is IRRV qualified and an executive member of the London Revenues Group as the Court and Enforcement Administrator.
James Straw, Benefits Manager, Haringey LBC
James Straw is the Benefits Manager at the London Borough of Haringey, bringing over 20 years of experience in benefits administration across a range of local authorities. With a deep understanding of policy and operational delivery, James has recently led transformative work in process redesign, particularly in the area of supported accommodation reviews. His strategic approach and commitment to service improvement have contributed to more efficient, user-focused outcomes. James is passionate about driving innovation in local government and sharing practical insights with peers across the sector.
Alistair Townsend, Director, Alistair Townsend Ltd
Alistair is currently IRRV Commercial Services Portfolio Holder and Council Member. He is also immediate Past President of the Institute. He has worked within Local Taxation, Revenues and Benefits throughout his career, initially working for a couple of Nottinghamshire Councils and latterly as Head of Revenues & Benefits for Milton Keynes Council. Alistair originally joined Milton Keynes, working for Mouchel in a contracted out service, and then later managed the transfer of the Service to the Council, during which time he also became Deputy Partnership Director for a Council owned LLP. After leaving Milton Keynes, Alistair joined Marston as Group Client Services Director, where he managed the Client Services function for the whole range of Group companies. After some 28 years working in Revenues and Benefits on an employed basis, Alistair established his own business as a consultant specialising in Local Taxation, Revenues & Benefits and local authority debt collection.
Helen Walker, Head of Delivery for CT Reform in Wales, VOA
Helen began her career in the VOA in 1989 as a trainee surveyor and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1993. She has worked in a variety of operational and corporate roles such as designing Council Tax policy and process before becoming Head of Strategy. From 2021 she moved to the VOA's Business Systems Transformation programme, focussing on designing customer facing services which saw her promoted to Director of Business Design and Delivery. As Head of Delivery for Council Tax Reform in Wales she is now responsible for delivering the Welsh Government's ambitions for more transparency in Council Tax in Wales, and for reforming the Council Tax Appeal system in Wales.
Martin Walmsley, Assistant Director Shared Revenues and Benefits, City of Lincoln Council and North Kesteven District Council
Martin has worked in Revenues and Benefits for 35 years, at seven different local authorities - joining City of Lincoln Council in 2003 and forming their shared service with North Kesteven District Council in 2011 - where he remains to this day. Martin has the full IRRV Hons qualification, and is also an examiner for the IRRV. Martin’s proudest career achievement was undoubtedly winning the IRRV Award for Excellence in Partnership Working in 2018, which centred around a joint holistic initiative with DWP to help Universal Credit customers make and maintain their claims. He is proud to work with a fantastic team and in a service area where he can make positive differences to peoples’ lives, - in particular from the Covid-19 pandemic and into the cost of living challenges – we have been able to tailor local solutions, which have been extremely positive.
Jonathan Woodward, Head of Revenues and Income and Debt Business Lead, Birmingham CC
Jonathan has worked in the debt industry his entire career. After graduating from Staffordshire University in 2001, he joined one of the ‘Big 4’ in corporate recovery and restructuring. Moving to Personal Insolvency, he managed a team handling bankruptcies and IVAs, and advised Local Authorities on debt recovery. In 2013, he left KPMG for a brief role as Revenues Manager at Stoke-on-Trent City Council before joining Birmingham City Council as Head of Revenues in 2017. He is primarilty responsible for the billing and collection of about £1.1billion in Council Tax, Business rates, and BID levies. He is currently seconded to the Authority's Finance Improvement and Recovery Programme as the Business Lead for the Income and Debt review. Jonathan also sits on the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government's Local Tax partnership forum.