Background
Westway Trust is an award-winning charity responsible for managing and developing the 23-acre estate beneath the Westway flyover in North Kensington, West London. The Trust oversees a diverse mixed-use estate comprising sports facilities, community spaces, commercial units, markets, green spaces and public amenities, all with the aim of improving the lives of local residents and supporting the wider community.
To strengthen the management of this unusual and complex estate, Westway Trust partnered with Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Technical Services & Estates Manager on a fixed-term basis.
The Challenge
Westway Trust needed an experienced estates and technical services professional able to oversee a wide-ranging portfolio of buildings, infrastructure and public spaces.
Reporting into the senior leadership team, the successful candidate would provide operational leadership across hard facilities management, statutory compliance and estates maintenance while supporting the Trust's wider property strategy.
Key responsibilities included:
- Leading all technical services and estates maintenance activities across the estate.
- Managing planned preventative maintenance (PPM) programmes.
- Overseeing mechanical, electrical and building fabric maintenance.
- Acting as the Trust's Health & Safety Officer.
- Ensuring full statutory and regulatory compliance.
- Managing contractors, consultants and specialist service providers.
- Developing maintenance strategies and long-term asset plans.
- Leading procurement and contract management activities.
- Managing risk assessments, method statements and CDM compliance.
- Supporting capital works and refurbishment projects.
- Providing technical guidance to Property Management and Facilities teams.
- Driving continuous improvement across operational performance.
A genuinely mixed-use estate is harder to run than its size suggests. Sports facilities, market trading, commercial lettings, community space and open public realm each carry their own compliance regime, their own pattern of use and their own tolerance for disruption, and an estates lead who also holds the Health & Safety Officer role carries all of it personally. The candidate had to combine technical knowledge with leadership, stakeholder management and commercial awareness to support one of London's most distinctive estates.
Our Approach
Working closely with Westway Trust, Maxwell Stephens built a detailed understanding of both the operational requirements of the role and the organisation's community-focused culture.
Using our specialist Facilities and Estates Management network, we ran a targeted executive search aimed at professionals with experience managing complex, multi-use estates.
Our assessment concentrated on candidates who demonstrated:
- Extensive technical services and estates management experience.
- Strong mechanical and electrical (M&E) knowledge.
- Health & Safety leadership and statutory compliance expertise.
- Experience managing public, commercial or mixed-use estates.
- Contractor and procurement management capability.
- Capital projects and planned maintenance experience.
- Strong people leadership and stakeholder engagement skills.
- A proactive, hands-on and collaborative management style.
Each shortlisted candidate went through a comprehensive interview and assessment process covering both technical capability and cultural alignment. On a charitable estate serving the public directly, the second matters as much as the first: the same person has to hold a contractor to account and explain a closure to the people who use the space.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens appointed an experienced Technical Services & Estates Manager who quickly became an integral member of the Estates team.
Drawing on significant experience in technical facilities management and estate operations, the successful candidate introduced greater structure, improved compliance and better maintenance planning across the Trust's property portfolio. In practice that meant:
- Stronger technical services management. Closer oversight of building services, infrastructure and estate maintenance, improving operational performance across a diverse portfolio.
- Improved health and safety compliance. As the Trust's Health & Safety lead, the appointee strengthened compliance procedures, risk management processes and statutory governance across the estate.
- Planned maintenance improvements. Robust planned preventative maintenance programmes reduced reactive maintenance while improving asset performance and lifecycle planning.
- Better contractor management. Improved procurement, contractor oversight and performance management raised service standards, accountability and value for money.
- Support for long-term estate strategy. Working with the wider Property and Facilities teams, the appointed manager delivered maintenance improvements and supported the Trust's long-term approach to sustainable estate management.
Why This Placement Worked
The appointment gave Westway Trust technical leadership capable of managing a highly diverse estate while supporting its wider mission of delivering community facilities and public spaces. Through stronger compliance, better maintenance planning and firmer contractor management, the successful candidate helped keep the estate safe, efficient and fit for the future.
The assignment reflects what Maxwell Stephens does across charities, public sector organisations and complex mixed-use estates: matching senior Technical Services, Estates and Facilities Management professionals to organisations where the estate exists to serve a purpose beyond its own balance sheet.
If you are recruiting a Technical Services or Estates Manager for a mixed-use or community estate, permanently or on a fixed-term basis, Maxwell Stephens can help you shape the brief and reach the right people. Get in touch with our team.