Armstrong was a Cabinet minister in the Labour Government from 2001 to 2007. She was also Minister for Local Government and Minister for Social Exclusion during her time in office. A Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010, she represented the seat of North West Durham. Armstrong worked as a social worker and university lecturer before entering politics. During her time in office she was responsible for many major government initiatives, including the New Deal for Communities, one of the most successful regeneration initiatives by government in recent times.
Heather was a political adviser and media spokesperson to Chancellor Rachel Reeves for three years, leading communications in opposition for the Labour shadow Treasury team.
A political strategist and strategic communications expert, Heather was Head of Social Media Organising on Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign. She also worked for Scottish Labour during the Scottish Independence Referendum, the General Election in 2015 and as Head of Digital in the Scottish Parliamentary Election in 2016.
Heather has experience in Brussels working on advocacy in the European Commission and for a transparency watchdog.
In July, she ran as a Labour candidate in the General Election in the seat of Dewsbury and Batley.
Angie Wright is the chief officer at b inspired based in Braunstone, Leicester.
b inspired is the successor body of the former Braunstone Community Association which managed the 10-year New Deal for Communities regeneration programme in Leicester.
Previously, Angie was the Leicester city development manager for the roll-out of the Sure Start, Neighbourhood Nurseries and Children’s Centres initiatives. Angie worked in Local Government for 14 years managing grant programmes, working to help the most deprived areas in the city.
Working with residents in Braunstone for 20 years, Angie has extensive experience of supporting local people to build the confidence and capacity necessary to enact positive change.
Danielle Walker Palmour is the director of the Friends Provident Foundation, which is an independent grant-making charity. She is also a non-executive director of Big Society Capital, a trustee of a number of local and national charities, and a member of the Congress of the University of York.
Previously, she held senior policy and research roles throughout the sector including director of policy and practice development at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, head of policy of what is now the Big Lottery Fund and at the Commission for Racial Equality and the Law Society of England and Wales.
Until 2011, she was a member of the Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Taskforce, the Cabinet Office’s Civil Society Advisory Body, the Financial Capability Taskforce and clerk of the Mount School York.
Alun Francis is the chair of the Social Mobility Commission and chief executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College.
Blackpool and the Fylde College is an award-winning organisation and is one of the largest and highest performing further education colleges in the country. It has degree awarding powers, a wide choice of T levels and is a Centre of Excellence for World Skills. It is leading the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology, and is pioneering a new approach to Further Education and Higher Education delivery with Blackpool Council, called ‘Multiversity Blackpool’, which sits at the heart of local regeneration plans.
From 2001 to 2007 Halpern was chief analyst in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. He was then director of the Institute for Government from 2008 to 2010, where he remains a senior fellow.
Halpern founded and led has been director of the Behavioural Insights Team, initially as part of the Cabinet Office and since 2013, as a partially privatised venture, until stepping down in 2024.
He currently is a visiting professor at King’s College London.
McGuinness was elected to represent the Lemington ward on Newcastle City Council in 2015, before joining the authority’s cabinet in 2016 as executive member for culture, sport and public health.
McGuinness became the Northumbria police and crime commissioner in a by-election on 18 July 2019, succeeding Dame Vera Baird and the acting commissioner, Ruth Durham, following Baird leaving the role to become victims’ commissioner. She retained the role following an election on 6 May 2021.
McGuinness was selected as the Labour candidate for the new position of North East Mayor in July 2023 and was elected in May 2024.
Moira began her career with 10 years at HM Treasury, including three years as private secretary to Nigel Lawson and John Major when they were Chancellors of the Exchequer. She was economic affairs private secretary to the Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997.
Moira established the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit in 1997 and led it until she moved to the Home Office in 2002. From 2002 to 2005 she set up and ran the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, a joint venture between the three criminal justice departments. From 2005, she was the Home Office Director General for Crime and Policing.
From 2013 to 2018, she was Provost of Oriel College, Oxford.
Jon is chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent council.
Previously, he was chief officer at the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, co-ordinating the delivery of Greater Manchester’s strategy for the transformation of health and care services.
Other previous roles include director general for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, Department of Health; chief executive, London Borough of Croydon; chief executive, Housing Corporation and chief executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Matt is the chief executive of Local Trust. He was formerly the chief executive of HACT, the social housing sector’s ideas and innovation agency.
Prior to joining HACT in 2011, Matt’s roles included chief executive of civil society funding agency Capacitybuilders, associate director of the ResPublica think tank and director at the Housing Corporation.
Matt has also led start up work on the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation and held a range of senior roles at the Department for Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities), and the Cabinet Office.