Our Team

Richard Beltrán

Head of Lettings

Fellow member of ARLA

Based on the aims, principles and successes of CityWest Homes, Richard has set up the new residential lettings and property management agency for private landlords – CityWest Homes Residential.

Richard has been working in the central London lettings industry for over 12 years, starting his career with the London subsidiaries of the largest estate agency group in the UK in various roles in lettings, starting as a letting negotiator and moving to a trouble-shooter role turning failing branches into highly successful and profitable businesses then finally moving on to being the E-commerce and IT strategy manager.

At his previous company Richard joined as letting manager taking over a flagship branch which was second from the bottom (out of 50 branches). Within a year it was third from the top giving him the recognition as a finalist and winner of ‘Best Newcomer' and ‘Most Improved Business'. Richard was promoted a senior branch manager, simultaneously running two lettings branches.

During his career Richard have worked for a wide spectrum of letting agents from founding members of the trade body – ARLA and the largest estate agency group in the UK to small independent lettings agencies covering every type of residential property that London has to offer.

Richard has also worked as a relocation agent giving him an insight to the tenants perspective and their surrounding issues.

Richard is a qualified kayaking and rock-climbing instructor and loves the outdoors and travelling.

Randall Bevis

Head of Lessee Services

Randall heads up the leasehold management and home ownership areas at CityWest Homes Limited –Westminster City Council's arms length management organisation. His unit is the only operation ever to receive an ‘excellent' rating by the Audit Commission through a discrete inspection.

After a career in administration, HR and property management with the Australian Public Service, he joined Westminster City Council's Housing Department in 1993, working on the capital and revenue programmes, before moving into project work involving district heating systems and commercial premises. In 1996, he joined the newly formed Lessee Services Group to project manage delivery of major works recharging, taking up his present post in 1998.

He has a particular interest in improving efficiency through the use of ITC in leasehold management to reduce costs. In 2005 he headed up a project team looking at customer service and resident communication issues across CityWest Homes's operation in preparation for CWH 's successful re-inspection by the Audit Commission in 2006. Randall is the National Federation of ALM Os representative on the Communities and Local Government backed social sector working party looking at leasehold and service charge issues.

As well as the day job, Randall is currently working to deliver Westminster City Council's settled homes initiative which involves a the re-purchase of 125 units from leaseholders for use as an alternative to temporary accommodation for families on the housing list. He is also working on an initiative with the Dolphin Square Foundation to acquire, refurbish and manage a small portfolio of properties.

Randall's hobby is collecting and occasionally trading die cast model “Dinky” cars.

Darren Levy

Director of Customer Services

Darren is the Director of Customer Services for City West Homes and is responsible for housing and estate management services, building and property services, lessees' service charge billing and recovery, together with CityWest's complaints team.

Since joining CityWest Homes in 2002, Darren has set up CityWest Direct,(the company's in-house direct management arm), helped establish CityWest's new business agenda and developed closer ties with Westminster City Council's Property Division in the management of commercial properties.

Prior to joining CityWest Homes, Darren spent a number of years managing properties and services within the RSL sector, for both The Guinness Trust and Southern Housing Group.

Colin Levy

Area Guide Author

Colin's passions in life are; London's history, industrial archaeology, archaeology of the medieval church & marine archaeology of the River Thames, art, photography and writing.

He regularly takes colleagues on walks around London after work, looking at where the Beatles lived and worked, the scary tales around the east end streets of Spitalfields and Whitechapel, the regenerated Covent Garden, alleyways of the City, artistic haunts around Camden and Islington, bards and brothels on Bankside, lives of Fitzrovia, tales of Pimlico and more locally the aristocratic palatial homes in Belgravia.

Another passion is attending evening classes in London studies, where he achieved a diploma in London History from Birkbeck, and numerous certificates from City University including archaeology, industrial archaeology and guiding. At present he is studying London Architecture at City University

At 58, his wish in life now is to enjoy those ‘passions'. Colin joined Westminster City Council in 1975 and during the late 60s and early 70s he was a disc jockey at the Birds Nest in the Kings Road, Chelsea, and was even mentioned in an article in the New Musical Express.

Lorna Whitehorn

Relationship and Communications Manager

Having worked in the housing field since 1978, Lorna started work in the Resident Involvement team for Westminster City Council in June 1998.

After successfully managing the resident consultation process for repackaging of the housing management contracts and the setting up of the ALMO CityWest Homes, Lorna assisted in setting up the governance arrangements and Board structures for the new organisation.

Her previous work experience includes being Director of Short life Housing Ltd in Camden, which was a tenant management organisation that focussed on providing housing for single people. She received a personal commendation from Prince Charles for her work at this organisation.

Lorna is currently responsible for overseeing the relationship management between CityWest Homes and its 14 Tenant Management Organistions and managing the Resident Involvement and Communications teams.

Lorna's hobbies include being a Grecophile, travelling and a being an Arsenal supporter.

Jayne Williams

Communications Officer

Jayne is currently communications officer at CityWest Homes and is responsible for media relations, event organisation, managing the corporate website, internal communications and writing corporate publications including CityWest News, an award winning resident newsletter.

Prior to joining CityWest Homes, Jayne worked in communication roles for two of the UK's largest housing associations, Genesis Housing Group and Home Group.

Jayne is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and recently passed with merit the CIPR Diploma in Public Relations.