Lynda Rawsthorne
Biography
Lynda Rawsthorne was appointed Government Head of Property Profession and Director, Property Capability, Sponsorship & Standards, in August 2023.
Lynda is head of the Government Property Profession, the community of property professionals across government. She provides professional leadership across a diverse range of government departments and arms-length bodies which deliver the government’s property ambitions.
Lynda is responsible for the Government Property Strategy and the Government Property Functional Standard. The strategy sets out the government’s plans for a public sector estate for public benefit, ensuring it enables the best possible public services, is efficient and sustainable and supports the government’s levelling up ambitions. The Functional Standard sets expectations for how government property is acquired, managed and disposed of.
Lynda has over 25 years’ professional experience across the property lifecycle including valuation, managing estates as well as delivering transformational and construction-based programmes. A Fellow of both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Association of Project Management, Lynda is a graduate of the Major Project Leadership Academy at the University of Oxford.
Lynda joined the Cabinet Office from the Department of Transport where she was Director of Programme Integration within High Speed Rail Group, leading the land and property interface. Her previous roles include Prison Infrastructure Director at Ministry of Justice, leading delivery of the 15,000 additional places construction and transformation programme, and Programme Director of the £4.4bn Priority School Building Programme at the Department for Education. Starting her career in Local Government, she then worked predominantly in the Valuation Office Agency which she joined on the graduate programme, serving as a Valuation Officer, Head of Customer Services and Chief of Staff.
Lynda grew up in Milton Keynes but as a military wife has travelled extensively, with married quarters in four countries. She juggled three children and a variety of working patterns while continuing her career.