Phoenix Strategic Land expands team with Senior Planner appointment

Emily O’Sullivan joins from a previous role at Persimmon Homes and brings her experience from a large PLC housebuilder to help lead sites from concept to consent at Phoenix Strategic Land (PSL).

In her role, Emily will work on site planning appraisals, strategic land development promotion and planning application management. As well as collaborating with various councils and planning officers to champion PSL’s land bank through the planning process.

Emily represents an important part of an expanding team at PSL. The company has been launched to bring together land and planning expertise under one focused business. As a company of the Phoenix Sustainable Investments group, PSL helps landowners unlock value, secure planning permissions, and deliver sustainable new communities.

Speaking about her appointment, Emily said: “I’m so excited to get started at PSL. It’s a newly formed business, with an experienced and personable team – dedicated to its clients and backed by decades of knowledge in the team, as well as the financial support of Phoenix Sustainable Investments. It’s an environment where I can grow and develop professionally and broaden my expertise. Getting the chance to run a number of new site planning applications from start to finish is something I’m particularly looking forward to.

“I think that’s what PSL offers to landowners and agents, a team that has decades of experience at major firms, delivering multi-thousand home developments – but is agile enough to tailor its approach to client needs or circumstances, and move quickly to secure what’s best for them in the creation of new communities.”

PSL already has several sites in active development, across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Most recently, the team successfully secured planning permission at appeal for the development of 95 homes in Glinton.

David Morris, Joint Managing Director at Phoenix Strategic Land, added: “We’re thrilled to have Emily onboard as one of our first appointments at Phoenix Strategic Land. She brings years of experience at a major housebuilder, as well as a passion and drive for every aspect of the planning process – whether it’s stakeholder and consultee management or developing masterplans and visions for development.”

 

Explore our case studies

BECCLES, EAST SUFFOLK

BECCLES, EAST SUFFOLK

A vision for a new garden neighbourhood We hold an Option Agreement over two thirds of the southern allocated site at Beccles – which incorporates 720 of the proposed homes, as well as employment land, education facilities, retail and other complimentary land uses. The vision for the site is built on the principles of Garden Villages, which are an approach to urban development dating as far back as the 1920s with the creation of Welwyn Garden City. Today, garden villages, neighbourhoods and cities are defined by healthy living, associated community and employment areas and amenities that sustain communities to be self-sufficient. This site brings our decades of experience together, with our team having been involved in creating multiple 1,000+ home communities across the East Midlands and East Anglia regions. Extensive engagement with local communities The site is identified in the East Suffolk plan for a development of 1,250 new homes plus supporting infrastructure. Our outline planning application has been the subject of considerable pre-application discussion with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and other statutory consultees over several years to address major environmental and infrastructure matters associated with the site’s master planning and development. We’ve also consulted with communities as recently as September 2024. While this delayed submission of the planning application, we saw as part of our development strategy, that these major issues should be resolved prior to submission of the outline planning application – to ensure an earlier and more informed determination once submitted. This is an example of navigating the planning system smartly, of knowing when and and how to submit your application in a manner that will give it the best chance of success. Delivering large-scale sites If approved, Phoenix Strategic Land is also in agreement to promote the commercial areas secured under the planning permission to a range of retail and commercial end users. This is a site that demonstrates the ability of our team to successfully manage large scale development through contracting, promotion to secure an allocation, and the problem solving that is so often a key requirement for major scale residential land promotion.
Learn more about BECCLES, EAST SUFFOLK
GLINTON, PETERBOROUGH

GLINTON, PETERBOROUGH

Responding to landowners and engaging communities Located just to the north of Peterborough, the site at Glinton was originally held under an Option Agreement and promoted for residential development in 2017 and 2018. However, after an initial planning application was refused, the landowner expressed an interest in selling the freehold and Phoenix Strategic Land purchased the site without a planning status.In 2023 and 2024, we started promoting the site through the LPA Local Plan review alongside pre-application public consultation – which proactively consulted and communicated with stakeholders and the local community
about the proposal. Navigating a complex planning system Phoenix submitted an outline planning application in September 2024. While this was refused by the LPA in February 2025, the site was subsequently identified as a draft allocation in the Local Plan review, published in April 2025. We had already decided to appeal the LPA’s refusal of planning permission, with a belief in the potential of the site to address local need – and because of the site’s draft allocation status in the Local Plan, the LPA decided not to contest our planning appeal, and we received planning permission in July 2025. Delivering housing, green space and biodiversity This was a site that demonstrates the complexity of the planning system, the time it can take to successfully achieve planning approval – and our flexibility in meeting the needs and wishes of the landowner. Alongside the consented 95 new homes, our plans include a wildflower meadow, public open space, and allotments as part of green infrastructure and biodiversity net gain (BNG) to make the development a sustainable and pleasant addition to the village of Glinton.
Learn more about GLINTON, PETERBOROUGH

Get in touch

Fill out the form below if you’re interested in understanding the potential value of your land. You also drop a pin on the map to give us a more precise location. Be sure to include any details we should be aware of and we’ll be in touch!

Friendly team member on a call

Show us your land by dropping a pin (Optional)

Click and drag to move around the map. Hold 'Ctrl' or 'Command' and scroll to zoom in.