David Skilton Jointt
Managing Director
David has 38 years’ experience in preparing and negotiating the design of new homes and new neighbourhoods; with developer in-house experience before entering private practice having worked for Croudace Homes, John Mowlem Homes, Wates Built Homes and Charles Church Developments.
David is an expert at recognising what is right and what is wrong with Housing Layouts and House & Apartment Designs, he will overmark initial schematics produced by the team at an early stage to ensure design quality and viability. David is an excellent negotiator and planning and architecture strategist; DHA’s incredibly high local consent % and the very high proportion of these consents that are achieved either at, or even above, the coverage referenced in the purchase viability is testimony to this skill set.
David has steered the ship through the difficulties of housing recessions, he runs the business without borrowings and has led the practice to achieve 14 ‘What House’ Awards, including Best Luxury House - Gold on three occasions, Best Luxury Development - Gold and the highly sought-after Best Brownfield Development - Gold and Silver in consecutive years.
Steve Mitchell
Jointt
Managing Director
Mitch’ is David’s right hand man and whilst with DHA he has grown into one of the best Housing Layout Designers working in the industry today. DHA’s ‘hit rate’ for appraisal work to successful land bid is greater than 1:3, and this is due to the layout team and in particular to Mitch and his ability to maximise coverage.
Efficiency whilst maintaining quality of design are his trademark and many housing developers are keen to utilise his skills as part of the professional package that DHA offers. Mitch understands the needs of our Developer clients having worked with the Berkeley Group prior to joining the DHA team back in 2000.
Mitch designs houses and apartment with a perceptive understanding of how people like to use the spaces he creates; he provides great designs from 450 sqft 1 beds to 10,000 sqft mansions.
Mitch is an artist, his presentation skills are excellent and his personable manner has been the subject of testimony from Clients, Local Authorities and Councillors alike.
Edwin England Communities Engagement & Urban Design Senior Associate
Ed has as very varied past; ‘Teacher - Sales and Marketing Administrator - Bid Submissions Manager - Morris Dancer!’ He is an expert with all the software the company uses from AutoCAD to InDesign. He is a qualified Urban Designer and leads the team in Masterplanning Principles, Bid Presentations and Area Character Appraisals.
Ed is excellent at identifying and layering technical constraints and planning policy constraints into co-ordinated drawings and then producing land use exercises to gain development cell locations and sizes which can then be used for development density calculations.
Stewart Beresford
Layout Design
Senior Associate
Stewart is a rising star in Layout Design. The clients love his methodical and pin-point accurate presentation skills and he always manages to find that extra last level of efficiency that invariably is needed when pencils need to be sharpened. Reliable and loyal he is a major asset to the practice going forward.
Jason Hobbs
CAD Design
Senior Associate
Jason worked for specialist housing practices for 6 years before joining DHA. He is a CAD layout genius, converting hand drawn concepts and appraisal layouts into buildable propositions. His understanding of building proportions and creating kerb appeal is second to none. When a building just ‘looks wrong’ he always recognises the quick fix.
Judith Chapman
Business Administration Associate
Judith provides invaluable support for the Directors in organising and administrating their days and weeks as needed as well as assisting the management team in the project programming of the current and impending workload. She assists David with the timesheet management and invoicing.
Mark Ireland
Senior Layout Designer
Mark joined DHA as a talented illustrator with an art degree under his belt. We have since taught him the skills needed to be an excellent layout designer in his own right. The added benefit of his artistic eye and his skills in photoshop mean that he is a central figure in the work that we do.
Kier Adams
CAD Design Manager
Kier runs the House Portfolios as part of his role. He co-ordinates and manages the preparation of the planning drawings, with particular strength in the application of the M4/2 and NDSS technical requirements.
Martyn Helsby
Illustrations Manager
Martyn established the visualiser team when he joined DHA back in 2011. He is a 3D specialist with extensive experience of 3D digital still images as well as fly-through animations. His library of sketch-up models enables perspectives to be produced in short timescales with impactful presentations being produced to wow Local Authorities and Design Panels.
Tom Pawson
Senior Visualiser
Tom is an important part of the team that produce the perspectives and street scenes for applications and presentations. His computer software knowledge is extensive and he can always find a way to adjust and adapt images to best present the proposals.
Sarah Potts
Senior Architectural CAD Technician
Sarah joined DHA having worked for two previous practices within the technical ‘working drawings’ team as a Senior Technician. She brings valuable technical knowledge to our planning design team.
Chanel Currow
Architectural CAD Technician
Chanel joined DHA following a period with Day Tanner Partnership. She is good natured and seriously conscientious. Chanel recently passed her RIBA Part 3 qualification which she took part time, sponsored by DHA. She has a fastidious mind which means she is called upon to double check the most complicated accommodation and coverage schedules.
Ethan Foy Assistantt
Architectural CAD Technician
Ethan is a graduate of De Montfort University and recently joined our Planning Design team. Well travelled and a natural born leader, we have big plans for this young man.
Samantha Hall
Urban Design Assistant
With a BA in Urban Studies and with planning experience, Sam joined Ed in the Urban Design team and hit the ground running. Sam has become an immediate valuable asset to the team.
Donna James
Visualiser
Donna joined DHA having worked for two separate Local Authorities as their Graphic Designer, starting way back in 1992. Her knowledge of In-Design is a valuable support for the Urban Design Team for when pre-app documents and presentations need to be produced.
Sam Mitchell
Junior Illustration Technician
Joining the Visualising team in late 2023 as an apprentice, Sam has already help push our visuals to the next level. When he’s not making animations in his free time, you can find him racing in various Go-Kart championships throughout the UK.
Pauline Whiston
Office Receptionist and Administrator
Pauline is far from just the pleasant voice at the end of the phone! She also co-ordinates the office diary and deals with file organisation and all office stationary needs.
Paul Ireland
Consultant Layout Designer
Although Paul is no longer on the payroll he continues to work for us on a consultancy basis.. His industry experience is extraordinary; he has designed housing layouts since leaving college at 17 - that is over 50 years of layout experience! Paul worked for several housing developers before joining David in the very early days of DHA.