Our latest interview in our Day in the Life series is with Alex Sciaretta, Group Land Director at Richborough, based in our London office.
This series aims to lift the veil on what we do at Richborough – offering a behind-the-scenes look at the people, processes and expertise that go into successful land promotion.
What does a Group Land Director do?
I have a national role working closely with our six regional residential land teams and our national commercial land team to ensure we continue to grow our pipeline with new strategic partnerships with landowners. So my team are often the first port of call in the land promotion process. I guess in other firms, we’d be called a new-business team, but there’s a lot more to it here as we do a lot of background work ensuring viability and deliverability from the outset.
What does a typical day involve for you?
I don’t really have a ‘typical day’, there’s a huge amount of variety. But I always work closely with our regional land teams across the country, meeting landowners, consultants and agents, reviewing new opportunities and helping shape strategy for future developments. There’s also a lot of collaboration with planning, technical and urban design teams to help bring sites forward successfully. At the moment, I work mostly on sites in our across growing South regions as we’re expanding rapidly there.
What do you enjoy about your role?
It’s the variety and the people. I enjoy working with teams across the business and helping unlock opportunities that can ultimately deliver new homes and communities. There’s a real sense of satisfaction in seeing a site evolve from an initial conversation through to a completed development that people will eventually call home.
What do you enjoy about working for Richborough?
Strategic land promotion is all about patience, relationships and shared expertise, and Richborough genuinely embraces that approach. That long-term thinking and collaborative culture is something I really value about the business and one of the reasons I came on board. There’s a huge amount of expertise across the company, but importantly, it’s actively shared and fostered between teams, allowing people to develop their own approach and build strong relationships.
What is your proudest achievement with Richborough? (a particular site or initiative we can talk about etc)
For me, it’s been really exciting to help shape the company’s expansion into the GLA market. I’ve worked in London for a long time, so being able to make those introductions and build on Richborough’s existing strengths, ensuring we were in the right place at the right time when the NPPF was changed with the Labour administration in 2024 was really rewarding. And subsequently, helping the team adapt to the opportunities and complexities that come with operating in London.
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to enter the field of land promotion?
Ask questions and keep asking questions – it’s the best way to learn. Land promotion gives you exposure to so many different disciplines, from planning and design to negotiation and relationship building, so staying curious is really important. It’s also an industry that rewards resilience, patience and strong people skills.
How do you unwind after a particularly challenging project?
When I need to unwind, we try to take a trip to our family’s ‘happy’ place – Salcombe in Devon. A walk on the beach, perhaps a game of beach cricket or a trip out on the sea, a few beers or a BBQ and all is right with the world again.