Atul Patel is an Independent Member of the Ealing Council Housing Forum. From 1995-1998 he was Director of Regulation at The Housing Corporation. He became Deputy Director at the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit from 1998-2001, and was also a Member of the Independent Selection Panel for Leicestershire Police Authority from 1998-2002.
He was appointed the Chairman of the Race Equality Advisory Group at the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2001-2005, overlapping with his role as a Board and Planning Committee Member at the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (2004-2009). He then held Chief Executive roles at ASRA Greater London Housing Association and LHA-ASRA Group, until retiring in 2010.