With a career spanning nearly 30 years, Lucy Morton is a deserving winner of this award and we are thrilled to honour her publicly, not only for her own personal achievements but also for the dedication, loyalty and diligence she has shown to our industry.
Having started as a lettings agent in 1983, Lucy established the lettings department for WA Ellis in 1990 and since then has built the department team into an award winning, market leader.
On record as saying, "[she] wanted to put something back into the industry that has served me so well for many years", Lucy was elected to the board of NFOPP in 2007 and appointed President of ARLA in 2009 after 17 years as a Regional Council Member and subsequently a National Council Member.
During her year long term as President of ARLA, Lucy focused much of her time encouraging the government to regulate the industry as well as calling for clarity on proposed legislation to ensure transparency and understanding for both landlords and tenants. Under Lucy's tenure, ARLA also launched their licensing scheme and to date have over 6,000 licensed members, the same number of which also signed up to The Property Ombudsman, results which speak for themselves as to the success of the campaign.
Lucy recognised that in order for the industry to change the perception of itself with the public, agents and agencies had to want to regulate themselves. Having spent much of her time as President travelling the country and meeting with ARLA members, she was able to speak to them directly about her vision for the future of industry standards; a view which she found was shared by many; all of whom were prepared to ‘put their money where their mouth is' and open themselves up to regulation. This desire amongst the industry itself to strive for higher and consistent standards can only mean great things for lettings agencies, landlords and tenants nationwide. The work put in by Lucy, her colleagues at ARLA and the agencies to achieve this must not be underestimated.
Since completing her tenure as President of ARLA Lucy has not rested on her laurels and now sits on the boards of both the new Register of Property Agents and the Property Standards Board. She is also a Board Director of CLEA (Central London Estate Agents) as the representative for Lettings, a Director of Lonres, a subscription service for agents in London and a Trustee of EAF (Estate Agency Foundation), the industry charity which is dedicated to combating the causes of homelessness.
It is testimony to Lucy's ongoing dedication to the industry she has served admirably over the past 28 years that despite the time she spends lobbying and sitting on various regulatory boards she remains as passionate about the grass roots of lettings as she ever was - her recent promotion to senior partner of WA Ellis reinforces this. Lucy Morton embodies everything which is excellent about our industry and her passion and vision is aspirational.
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