As Lisa Taylor steps back from Leaders Plus, former Homes England strategy expert Elizabeth Rapoport picks up the reins. We talk to her about climate resilience, complex leadership challenges and our alumni network.
Dr Elizabeth Rapoport brings a wealth of relevant experience to Future of London as the new course director of Leaders Plus, with a background in strategy development for affordable housing and a growing focus on climate resilience.
Usefully, she also co-authored a book called Leading Cities, which compared approaches to urban leadership across 200 countries.
“I found that it’s fairly straightforward,” she says, smiling. “There are a few key messages, including that a leader doesn’t equal leadership and leadership is a process. The third takeaway is that leadership involves individuals, as well as structures and institutions.
“Leadership is a catalyst for action. It’s about remaining relentlessly focused on opportunities, getting outside your organization. The Future of London approach of seeing yourself as part of a wider system is quite unique.”
Leadership research is just one strand of Elizabeth’s career. She brings a broad, big-picture perspective to the challenges faced by candidates on Leader Plus, the nine-month leadership programme that brings together a cross-sector cohort for a shared learning experience.
As Lisa Taylor steps back from Leaders Plus in the new year, she reflects on the challenges facing the sector during her 12 years at Future of London. Read more
From New York housing to climate resilience for London
Elizabeth grew up in the United States and her first job was in housing for New York City’s housing department, before moving to the UK and landing a similar role in the Greater London Authority in 2003.
This was followed by jobs in universities and the public and private sectors. She has worked in several research and strategy roles, including Assistant Director – Strategy at Homes England and a strategic role on Enfield Council’s Meridian Water project.
After leaving Homes England in 2023, Elizabeth set up her own consultancy, Polygon Place Strategy, and took on several non-executive roles in the sector, including chairing Flood Ready London, a partnership of public and private sector organisations responsible for addressing the risk of surface water flooding in the capital.
The connection between the climate crisis and the built environment is a strong theme of Elizabeth’s recent work, including a project on delivering retrofit at scale across all tenures for London Councils. She clearly sees climate change as a major challenge – possibly the major challenge – for the sector.
“It’s gotten complex,” Elizabeth notes. “We broadly know how to adapt our cities to climate change and to deal with mitigation by carbon reduction. The challenge is actually doing it.
“There’s a disconnect between planning for energy systems, building retrofit and climate adaptation. The challenge is bringing that all together to deliver change and you have to be an interdisciplinary thinker to succeed.”
Complexity and the leadership challenge
Elizabeth sees climate change as just one of the increasingly complex challenges facing leaders in the built environment sector.
“We keep getting asked to do more. We used to just build things, but now we need to ensure that schemes don’t have a detrimental impact on the climate, deliver positive social value, and all done through the correct procurement approach.”
Now Elizabeth is adding Leaders Plus to her portfolio of roles and projects. She sees a strong connection between her analysis of the challenges facing sector leaders and the Future of London leadership model that connects professions, sectors and geographies.
“The way cohorts work together is designed to help them learn from each other and that’s a real advantage,” she says. “The fantastic alumni network means you have established relationships and ongoing communication with people who are in similar positions to you is another huge advantage.”
Lisa Taylor steps back from Leaders Plus
After 12 years at Future of London, Lisa Taylor is stepping back to focus on Future of Greater Manchester and her own consultancy, Coherent Cities. She will be handing over to Elizabeth in early 2026, which Elizabeth describes as a period of “evolution, not revolution”.
“Lisa leaves big shoes to fill and I’m building on 12 years of a successful programme, so for my first year I’m definitely going to be focusing on continuity and a seamless transition.”
The two ‘Future of” city-regions will also stay connected, offering intercity learning opportunities and sharing ideas and best practice.
Elizabeth joins Future of London as the sector is increasingly wrestling with the complexity of the interconnected problems facing the city, including climate resilience, unaffordable housing and growing inequalities within and between neighbourhoods.
“We are delighted that Elizabeth is joining Future of London, bringing a wealth of insight into how the sector can address the major challenges facing the built environment,” says Nicola Mathers, Chief Executive of Future of London.
“Leaders Plus candidates will be at the forefront of tackling these complex challenges and we know that Elizabeth will help them develop the necessary leadership skills to succeed.”
Preparing leaders for collaboration and crisis
Elizabeth wants to amplify the focus on cross-sector collaboration, including identifying the key skills needed for partnership working. She also wants to broaden the scope of the “leading through crisis” module to include leading through uncertainty.
“I’ll be leaning into systems thinking to show how to lead effectively in the face of uncertainty,” she says. “I want to share pragmatic systems thinking tools to help manage complexity.”
With the scale of London’s housing and regeneration challenge, this focus on complexity and interconnected leadership feels important and timely. Elizabeth arrives at a pivotal moment for the sector, with the knowledge and experience to help Leaders Plus candidates take on these challenges.
Thanks to Related Argent for sponsoring Leaders Plus
