Karen Alcock was for 12 years a Hackney councillor and for five of them the borough’s deputy mayor under Jules Pipe, nowadays Sir Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for planning. She founding Kanda Consulting in 2017 and, as its managing director, has built it into formidable company in its field, specialising in advising clients from the world of development and placemaking, primarily in the capital. Good knowledge and intelligence about London government is important to that work.