MAB appoints Douglas Cochrane to senior consultancy role

Douglas Cochrane (pictured) has been appointed to the Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) as new build strategic consultant, starting from 1 August.

Cochrane, who has over 40 years’ experience at Lloyds Banking Group, will retire from his current role on 31 July and will provide consultancy to MAB on a part-time basis.

Cochrane is past chair of UK Finance, mortgages, Scotland policy committee, and served as a member of the NHBC’s Scottish Committee and its National Council for over 10 years.

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He has also been announced as one of the founding board members of the New Homes Quality Board, created to drive up the standards of new homes in the UK supported by a new consumer code and the appointment of a New Homes Ombudsman.

Cochrane will work alongside the likes of Andy Frankish, James Chidgey and Mobeen Akram, who was appointed as MAB’s National New Homes Director earlier this year.

He will concentrate on the continued development of MAB’s digital customer journey in the new homes sector by consulting with key industry individuals.

Cochrane said: “This is a new chapter in my career and one I’m very much looking forward to.

“MAB has some fantastic businesses operating in the new build sector, and having worked the lender side for over 40 years, I now have the opportunity to build on that at a strategic level for one of the UK’s most respected and innovative mortgage intermediaries.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always been involved in broader conversations on making the wider housing market diverse and building a sustainable market for the future – that will very much continue.

“New build is a complex and demanding environment which requires specialist lender products, policies and service that meet customer requirements but the key to any transaction is the mortgage broker who bridges the gap between lender, builder and customer.

“I’ll be working specifically with the MAB team to deliver a best in class and fully integrated customer, broker and builder experience by using my knowledge and industry contacts built up over the years.”

Andy Frankish, new homes director at the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “Douglas is a fantastic addition to help drive forward the MAB new homes proposition and we’re very excited about his appointment.

“Douglas is a regular contributor to debates on housing supply and quality at central and the UK devolved governments so in this new role, he will be able to bring this type of understanding to our new build brokers and appointed representative firms.

“With Douglas’ vision and appetite to make change at the highest level, we’re hoping to grow our market share in this specialist sector even further by building on our already strong proposition.”