Anna Sinnott is Head of Consultancy at Be First, the urban regeneration vehicle for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. She grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and brings an objective practical approach to development opportunities as well as a genuine enthusiasm for delivering change.

She leads the planning and design consultancy teams who work on Be First projects, as well as for private developers and other local authorities. This provides unique insight into development across London in both the public and private sectors.

In her 25 year career she has gained expertise in a range of topics which are listed on this form, however the focus of her work at Be First is currently housing, town centre regeneration and industrial projects. Working with communities, championing placemaking and promoting diverse teams are fundamental to all the projects Anna works on.

She is currently working on key projects the two main town centres in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Vicarage Fields shopping centre for Pinebridge and a Be First led project in Dagenham Heathway. Both of which involve the redevelopment of failing shopping centres with high density mixed use proposals and are positioned within wider town centre regeneration initiatives. These projects build on Anna's experience working at Building Design Partnership (BDP) for 15 years where she led town centre projects such as Whitechapel Masterplan and North Finchley Masterplan, both of which were adopted as Supplementary Planning Documents.