Keith Osborne, editor of Show House magazine, speaks to Claire Brenlund, sales and marketing director of L&Q, about the business success at the WhatHouse? Awards and the benefits of being part of the industry’s biggest event.
Sales and marketing director Claire Brenlund was on holiday when L&Q picked up a brace of Silvers at the WhatHouse? Awards 2025: one in the Best Starter Home Scheme category for Kew Bridge Rise in Brentford, West London (a collaboration with another multi-award-winner, The Hill Group) and another for Best Partnership, working with Lovell on Whalley Manor in Lancashire.
But she’s been numerous times in her 25-year industry career and has seen the benefits of attending, particularly for those involved in the award-winning schemes.
“It’s really good to have representation there from different levels, and people that have worked really hard, completely focused on the schemes as well,” she says.
“I have been to the awards previously and I always find these really good recognition – you can wear that ‘award-winning badge’ with pride. With Whalley Manor, some of the market conditions that have changed and it’s had its series of ups and downs, so to be an award winner I think is just really important, that external recognition that you’ve done a great job and this is a fantastic scheme.”
Brenlund has worked her way up the career ladder, having started as a sales administrator. Her current position spans all of L&Q’s geographical areas.
“We’re mainly focused in Greater London and Manchester – they’re our core geographical areas, and the sales team report into me. Private sales and Shared Ownership transactions fall within my team, as well as all marketing activity. We also have a research and customer team that sits within us. They progress all our sales applications, making sure that everything’s streamlined.”
Marketing new homes was not her first career path, though. “I’m also a qualified mortgage advisor, which I stopped doing in 2008 when there was a bit of a crash and I had my third son.
“I didn’t really want to do all the exams to get back into it, so that’s when I got into housing associations. I was previously in the private sector, gaining experience across various roles. I think it really helps when you go up through the ranks because you really understand the problems on the ground, and take them as they’re meant to be. Sometimes they can sound quite immaterial, but actually they’re really impactful to people’s well-being and morale.”
Whalley Manor is a favourite current development. “When I go there, the sun’s always shining and it just puts you in a good mood. It’s so different to the developments that we’ve got in London.”
L&Q and Lovell have partnered on a number of joint ventures in the North West and have forged a strong relationship, says Brenlund.
“We work really closely with them and we can play to each other’s strengths. It’s always much better to have these partnerships because you can share the risk and reward, and you end up with more homes delivered as a result. We’ve just started a new joint venture with Lovell in Old Trafford, working with Trafford Council. That’s going to be a fantastic scheme.
“We provide the sales services for the JV there as well, so we can really input to and embrace the scheme further than we would ordinarily. It’s not usual for us to provide sales agency services in JVs. In fact, of all our JVs, we only provide them on two of them. But it’s really good to kind of get under the skin a little bit more with that.”
She believes that housebuilders who have yet to work in a partnership should seriously consider for numerous reasons.
“Partnerships really allow organisations to play to their strengths and working with housing associations also de-risks schemes because you have that forward sale of the affordable. And it also helps with like-minded organisations for growth for both sides.”
“I’ve seen quite a lot of developers having to pull back and slow down – and in some cases even stop – because they haven’t got the partnerships in place. With Section 106s, we’re working hard to make sure that they work for everybody. I think historically, they’ve worked more for the developer, but now housing associations are playing more of a significant role.
“We can see how we’re de-risking this product, this scheme by putting in differential products. So I do think in terms of viability and risk, partnerships are really important, not only to make schemes viable, but also to have that different experience. It’s all about not having all your eggs in one basket, isn’t it? So I think that it’s definitely going to be a way forward for the industry.”
Brenlund has seen L&Q not immune from the industry challenges of build inflation and a depressed sales market, but she believes that the product and the location of Whalley Manor is something outstanding that has resulted in really strong demand. L&Q having its own construction team, and a tenure-blind approach across its schemes, are two further reasons for the successes she has seen, she adds.
“We invest in delivering strong communities so everyone can enjoy everything within our developments, and that goes for Whalley Manor as well. We’ve had some really high-quality architectural design there. It’s a great-looking development that people are really keen to move to.
“We’ve had our challenges, but I don’t think they’re unique to our partnership. I think the North West has been far less impacted than London actually, and we are still seeing some pretty decent price growth there as well, which of course helps with the viability – again, an issue for all of us.”
She sees real benefits in flexibility at this award-winning development.
“We’ve also looked at the house types and remained quite nimble about how we approach things. We’ve remained quite open-minded, we’ve listened to the market, we’ve listened to customers and residents about what really makes Whalley Manor a place that people want to live. We’ve listened and we’ve adapted.”
In all parts of the country where L&Q is working, viability has been really challenging for all kinds of reasons, Brenlund says, but adopting the right mentality and establishing good working relationships can smooth the process.
“We look to work as closely as we can with the likes of the GLA, the GMCA, Homes England, and we’ve quite recently expanded our new business team to help support the growth ambitions that we have in the areas that we’re focused on. So we can plough the resource into the areas that really matter to ensure that we can overcome any additional hurdles that there may be. But we work really hard on strategic scale, placemaking products and sharing that benefit of our track record to really try and influence as much as we can.”
Given its ongoing successes in established locations, is L&Q planning to increase the variety of regions in which it builds?
“Whalley is outside of our core geographical areas and we’re working hard to focus and really share the benefit of our track record in these areas. Greater London and Greater Manchester are where we’re really looking to increase our delivery of affordable homes and social rented homes. To do this, we’ve looked at transfers from part of our wider stock rationalisation plan just to make sure that we’re simplifying all of our services.”
She continues: “As an organisation, we feel really strongly that everyone deserves to live in a home that they’re proud of, and we can only do that by focusing in on these areas where we already have a lot of stock, we’re able to take care of it properly, we’re able to have the facilities there to support residents. This is a project that we really feel confident about. We’ve had a lot invested in it, we’ve got great working partnerships with Lovell, but our focus areas will remain as those two, Greater London and Greater Manchester.
Brenlund and her team consistently monitor consumer demands to influence adjustments to its products.
“Apartments are always going to have their place in the market, but we have looked at changes in design. So for example, studio apartments historically didn’t sell very well – people couldn’t see themselves there longer term and there was never enough in that price point. However, we’ve started introducing them to a few of our schemes because what we’ve seen since Covid is the amenity offering. In a lot of blocks, they are so much better – they have working-from-home and communal spaces within them and therefore, having that space within your actual apartment hasn’t felt as important.”
Houses have been popular in Manchester, she adds, but it’s trickier in London. While Barking Riverside (itself a Gold winner in previous WhatHouse? Awards) L&Q is building them but they are generally difficult to provide in London. With apartments, it’s vital that L&Q provide the right design, the right tenures and a really good mix.
“We do a lot of research right at acquisition stage, look at who’s out there, who’s buying at the moment, what kind of homes they’re looking for, and feed that all in at design stage. We’re really lucky within L&Q to have very strong relationships with other departments and as a research and sales team, we’ve really listened to what the requirements are, not just cookie cutting apartments. We’re really listened to, in terms of what is going to be desirable, what the wants and needs are. And again, that does change from location to location. It’s important that we do that piece of work and it’s fed through.”
When she heads to the Grosvenor House Hotel with her team this November, who would be Brenlund’s ideal host of the WhatHouse? Awards 2026?
“As an industry, it’s been really, really tough for us, so I think it’s going to have to be somebody light-hearted and we can forget about things and have a bit of a laugh and joke. I absolutely love Lee Mack, I think he’s brilliant. I’ve been a huge fan of his for many, many years. He’s just so silly and you can laugh along with him. I think he’s a fantastic entertainer.”
“I think that the awards are a really good opportunity for us to network with each other, celebrate our successes and have fun. And so I think someone that can make you giggle along the way is always a good thing, particularly when you’ve had a glass of champagne!”
