James has been Director of the District Councils’ Network (DCN) since September 2021. He provides policy, strategic and operational leadership for the DCN and its 183 member councils. Before the DCN, James held a range of senior civil service posts. Most recently, he worked at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). His roles included being Joint Director of Housing Strategy & Markets, Director of Building Safety & Remediation, and Deputy Director of Local Authority Housing and Right To Buy. He also worked in senior policy and strategy roles at the Ministry of Justice and HM Treasury. He also has private-sector experience from his early career as a strategy consultant where, among other things, he worked on projects to develop commercial strategies for biofuels.