Sat 1 Sep 2007
Mixed response
Browsing through Estates Gazette the other week I read an astonishing pop at you resi boys from the magazine’s editor Peter Bill.Talking about mixed-use and the opportunities afforded to the commercial sector, Bill said: “Housebuilders are mostly a bunch of cowardly duffers, who have neither the nerve nor the ability to involve themselves in large-scale urban redevelopment.”
Ouch, and that’s just when Tony Pidgley senior gets hold of him. I am sure it was written largely for shock value and to illicit a response.
I hope you have responded.
This brings me to Resi 07 (www.resi07.com). I like the look of this event, which takes place at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport from 11 to 12 September and is bringing the residential and commercial developers together to swap knowledge and no doubt trade land over a glass, with mixed-use all the rage. It is a two-day networking event with a raft of interesting seminars and some quality speakers, including Berkeley’s Pidgley, Mark Clare of Barratt, Nick Ritblat of the British Property Federation and our very own columnist Stewart Baseley from the Home Builders Federation. The event is being opened by Ruth Kelly, the Minister of State for Communities and Local Government. Show House will be reporting on the conference in a future issue.
Sticking his neck out
For 12 years this publication has chronicled the comings and goings in the industry through its Movers & Shakers column, and what a rich and varied bunch of appointments we have seen down the years. But, without the benefit of extensive research, I think I can say without fear of contradiction that not many have been recruiting from the giraffe keeping sector, or the morgue. David Wallace, with degrees in both Architecture and Urban and Rural Planning, is clearly not dead from the neck up.
Sorry – that’s the only combination of giraffe and morgue gag I could come up with.
David is Redrow’s new land director in Scotland and is a former MD of Stewart Milne Homes across Scotland’s central belt. He not only worked as a giraffe keeper, but an assistant mortician, although not at the same time I hope. I now have a rather tragi-comical vision of an upturned giraffe on a slab beside a rather large coffin. David presumably never got the top job because it was dead man’s shoes (and presumably has heard all these terrible puns before. Ed).
Drinks mat merger delayed
Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey covered every detail creating the country’s biggest housebuilder Taylor Wimpey. The merger was a £5 billion deal, with integration apparently as smooth as these things can ever be. Strengths were married, supply chains streamlined, synergy savings made and material rebranded. When a colleague visited HQ in High Wycombe recently to interview Taylor Wimpey’s UK chief executive Ian Sutcliffe (who will be the subject of Builder’s Breakfast in November) he was kindly offered a steaming cup of coffee, which he put down on a George Wimpey drinks mat. Apparently Taylor Woodrow do not see this as a deal breaker and Taylor Wimpey mats are on order. I look forward to a complimentary one to rest my regular morning Grande Caramel Macchiato on.
Wolf in Scouse clothing
It could have been Liverpool, but Steve Morgan, the man who built Redrow, has finally got his hands on a football club, having bought Wolverhampton Wanderers, who incidentally were his second favourite team when growing up in Liverpool. Investing in football is all about love, not money, but I expect Morgan and his business acumen to make a real impact at Molineux and raise this sleeping giant to the Premiership. Morgan is a real football fan and not an American who thinks footballers wear helmets and Linda Evans shoulders pads. A fascinating interview with Morgan, still extremely busy in the property field, will be published in the next issue of Show House.
Housing flowers in Scotland
The industry has been overloaded with Gordon Brown’s laudable if a tad ambitious housing initiatives, making it clear that housing is not just the central plank of his premiership, it is every strut and joist, providing they are green and affordable. But perhaps the most significant statement in all the heavyweight publicity came via Bellway as they proudly announced their output in Scotland was up 23 per cent last year. The main reason? Better planning regulations north of the border. Bellway finance director Alistair Leitch said: “I think Scotland benefits from an easier planning system. There are not the same restrictions that there are in place in the rest of the country.” Of course, unlike the rest of the UK, Scotland is not subject to PPG3, so can build plenty of large houses on greenfield sites, rather than being pushed towards higher brownfield densities.
“That means we are able to deliver to the Scottish market what people want – detached properties,” said Leitch. So simple: so obvious; so come on Gordon.
First published in Show House Magazine September 2007.
The greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy but some information contained within this article may have changed since it was first published.
Posted by Secret Squirrel
in Alistair Leitch, Barratt Homes, Bellway, Berkeley Homes, British Property Federation, David Wallace, Gordon Brown, Home Builders Federation (HBF), Ian Sutcliffe, Mark Clare, Nick Ritblat, Peter Bill, Redrow, Ruth Kelly, Secret Squirrel, Steve Morgan, Stewart Baseley, Stewart Milne Homes, Taylor Wimpey, Tony Pidgley on Sat 1 Sep 2007
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