Government Property Agency appoints joint chief operating officers in job share

The Government Property Agency (GPA) has appointed Erin Robinson and Helen Mills as joint chief operating officers, running the post as a job share across the agency's corporate services and operational delivery.

The GPA, an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, announced the appointments on Monday 2 November. It said the pair would set up a co-leadership model at the agency, which holds more than £2.1bn of property assets and covers over 53% of the government's office estate.

The two have worked the same arrangement before. According to the GPA, they were previously joint People and Transformation Directors at the former Department for Science, Innovation and Trade (DSIT), where the agency said they established the model.

Mark Bourgeois, the GPA's chief executive, said: "Their arrival to the agency highlights our attempts to embrace co-leadership models" while championing modern, flexible and inclusive ways of working across the Civil Service.

He said the pair would work alongside the executive committee, with a focus on empowering staff, driving operational excellence and supporting delivery of a smaller, better and greener government office estate.

The appointees

Robinson previously held leadership posts at the Cabinet Office and HM Revenue and Customs and was a chief operating officer at the Government Digital Service, the GPA said. At DSIT she led a programme on the department's skills, capability, structure and systems.

Mills has spent most of her career in HR, operational and programme management roles. Before DSIT she held director-level posts at several departments, including the Department for Exiting the European Union, where she directed its corporate centre. She has also worked for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Cabinet Office and HMRC.

In a joint statement, Robinson and Mills said: "We are delighted to be joining GPA and taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer at this pivotal time" for the organisation and the Civil Service.

They said they had worked in partnership with the GPA for many years as customers and clients, and would build on that experience to deliver places to work for civil servants. They also said they looked forward to working with colleagues, government partners and suppliers, and to sharing best practice on a shared delivery model across government.

The agency

The GPA was set up in 2018 to bring the government's office assets into a single portfolio. It describes itself as the largest office property holder in government and says it supports more than 125,000 civil servants. Its stated mission is to provide exceptional workplaces for civil servants and deliver a smaller, better and greener government office estate.

In its 2025-26 annual report, the agency reported £17.5m in annual savings for government from office closures in London, and £25.4m in commercial savings against a £20m target. It also completed delivery of the 26 Whitehall Government Hub in the year.

The chief operating officer post is not new to the agency. The GPA announced the appointment of Lisa Commane as COO on 19 September 2023, with a start the following month, describing the move at the time as strengthening its executive team as it delivered the property estate needed for modern government.

Bourgeois himself was confirmed as permanent chief executive after 10 months in the interim seat. He is a former managing director for the UK and Ireland at Hammerson plc and before that an executive director at Capital & Regional plc.

The new COOs follow another change at board level. On 8 October 2026 the GPA appointed Dominic Arthur, chief operating officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, as a non-executive director until July 2029, and said it had updated its governance structure after the appointment.

Live projects

The appointments come with construction under way on the agency's estate programme. Work on the GPA's Brunswick Street hub in Darlington started in January 2026 with Kier Group as lead contractor; the building will house more than 1,600 civil servants and is due to open in the first quarter of 2028.

The agency's planned Manchester Digital Campus is intended to bring together about 8,800 people from multiple government departments.