A FAMILIAR face on the Huddersfield property scene has launched a new business.

Chris Jowett, who ran the town centre branch of estate agency Brearley-Greens for almost 20 years, has set up his own practice, Jowett Chartered Surveyors in the same Market Street premises.

Mr Jowett is joined by his two sons, Gareth and Rhys, who have both worked in the industry for more than three years in between graduate studies.

The practice comprises a team of six covering valuations, letting, new developments and residential sales.

The launch of the business, which also has its own website, is the realisation of a long-held ambition for Mr Howett, who started out on his career in chartered surveying in 1978 by gaining a degree in estatemanagement at Portsmouth Polytechnic.

His first appointment was as a graduate valuer in the Calderdale District Valuer’s Office in Halifax before he moved into private practice after qualifying as a chartered surveyor in 1981.

Mr Jowett joined the Halifax branch of Eddisons as assistant valuer. He stayed there for three years before being promoted in 1984 to run Eddisons’ Brighouse office dealing with residential sales, building society and bank valuations, as well as new build for developers.

Within three years, he became an associate in Eddisons and was promoted again to work in the Huddersfield office alongside senior residential partner Douglas Hoyle. Following Mr Hoyle’s retirement in 1987, Mr Jowett took on the role of joint manager with Raymond Butterworth.

Following Eddisons’ acquisition by the Leeds Permanent Building Society in the late 1980s, Mr Jowett was offered the chance to become a partner in Brearley-Greens and to set up and manage the new Huddersfield office in 1989.

Mr Jowett said he was looking forward to the challenge of running the new business.