Naisha Polaine is Executive Director of Growth at London Borough of Barnet. She leads one of London’s most ambitious growth strategies, with major development and regeneration schemes taking place in neighbourhoods across the borough. This includes the £8bn Brent Cross Town regeneration scheme, delivered in partnership with RelatedArgent, with a planned 6,700 new homes, 50 acres of parks and open spaces, new and improved schools, new community, retail and leisure infrastructure, plus three million square feet of office space. Alongside this, she works with communities, developers and partnership boards to deliver the newly adopted Local Plan ambition for 44,000 new homes, aiming for over 10,000 of those to be affordable and meet Barnet’s commitment to being a NetZero borough by 2042. Previously, Naisha was Director for Harlow and Gilston Garden Town, where she led a partnership of five councils delivering 23,000 new homes across four neighbourhoods, as well as significant associated transport and community infrastructure. Prior to this, Ms Polaine was a senior adviser to the Department for International Trade, connecting international investors with large-scale real estate and infrastructure inward investment opportunities across the UK. She has also held senior executive positions at Homes England (formerly the Homes and Communities Agency), the Housing Corporation and Cambridge City Council. Naisha was also a Non-Executive Director for Cambridge University on their award-winning North-West Cambridge 3000 home urban extension at Eddington. She has held previous Directorships at Countryside Maritime Ltd, and a number of local delivery vehicles and is currently a Non-Executive Director at Hill Holding Group Ltd, one of the HBF top 5 UK housebuilders. She graduated from SOAS, London University and with a Masters degree from the London School of Economics.