Chief Executive Appointed

British Land Co PLC
26 July 2004


                                                                    26 July 2004

                 British Land - Appointment of Chief Executive

The Board of The British Land Company PLC is pleased to announce that 
Mr. Stephen Hester has been appointed Chief Executive of the Company and will
take up his duties later in the year, as soon as he is able to relinquish his
present appointment. At this time the roles of Chief Executive and of Chairman
of the Board will be split, with Mr. John Ritblat remaining in post as Chairman
of the Board.

Mr. Hester (aged 43) is at present Chief Operating Officer of Abbey National plc
which he joined as Chief Financial Officer in May 2002. For the previous twenty
years he was at Credit Suisse First Boston, rising through various appointments
to become Chief Financial Officer and then Global Head of the Fixed Income
Division in both New York and London. At Abbey he has held a leadership role in
the company embracing strategy, risk, finance, financial markets and external
communications, skills which will be particularly apposite at a time of change
in the property industry.

Dr. Chris Gibson-Smith, Chairman of British Land's Nomination Committee, states,
"We are very pleased to have attracted Stephen Hester to be our new Chief
Executive. The breadth of his experience will be invaluable and we are confident
that in the Chief Executive role he will be a worthy successor to John Ritblat.
We are fortunate that we will be able to retain John Ritblat as Chairman, where
his wide ranging skills and unrivalled experience of the property industry will
continue to remain invaluable".


Contacts

The British Land Company PLC:

John Ritblat, Chairman                                   tel. [phone]
Christopher Gibson-Smith, Nomination Committee Chairman  tel. [phone]
John Weston Smith, Chief Operating Officer               tel. [phone]

Finsbury:

Ed Orlebar                                               tel. [phone]
Faeth Birch                                              tel. [phone]




                      This information is provided by RNS
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