We speak to Paul Silver, CEO of Dorchester Group, about his career path and the challenges and rewards of his role.
You set up your own business for Dorchester Living from a career in finance – but were you always an entrepreneur at heart?
I have always been commercially minded and naturally able to see potential in things moving from advising housebuilders on risk into creating Dorchester Living. From attending University College School in Hampstead and then studying Economics at the University of Leeds, I then went on to start my career as a Chartered Accountant, before moving into mergers and acquisitions, mainly working with the housebuilding sector while I was at Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. I’ve always believed in the legacy of place, how the built environment and social infrastructure can shape lives over generations and in the end, I wanted to do more than simply advise from the sidelines – I wanted to lead from the front.
A project of the scale of Heyford Park must require a wide range of people and skills – how do you successfully build a team like that?
I am extremely proud of the team around me, particularly as many members have worked with me for more than a decade. Building a strong team is about bringing together complementary skillsets. Trust is fundamental. I trust my team, empower them to take ownership and support them to reach their full potential. That culture of mutual respect and long-term collaboration is what enables us to deliver projects on the scale of Heyford Park.
What is your inspiration with Heyford Park?
I’ve always been inspired by places with a strong sense of community and long-term vision, such as Bournville, a 19th-century community built by the Cadbury family for its workers. Bournville was a fantastic example of what can be achieved when housing is designed with people’s wellbeing at its heart.
With Heyford Park, my ambition was never simply to build houses, but to create a thriving, sustainable community. I would like that to be my legacy, to have been behind the creation of somewhere people feel proud to live, with character, green space and a real sense of belonging.
If you were named Minister for Housing for the day tomorrow, what would you prioritise to kick-start housebuilding in the UK?
I would start with refocusing on bigger-picture, long-term thinking. The UK is simply not building enough homes, and that shortfall has a direct and profound impact on the housing crisis. You only have to look at the growing number of people without homes and children without safe places to live. We need clearer strategic planning, greater certainty in the system, and policies that genuinely support delivery at scale while maintaining quality. Unlocking land, streamlining processes and fostering collaboration would all be central to accelerating sustainable housebuilding in a meaningful way.
Having succeeded with Heyford Park, do you have an appetite for another property development challenge?
I’ve been working on Heyford Park since 2008, when Dorchester bought the former air base from Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey. We’ve already built over 1,200 homes, alongside extensive community facilities including an all through school, a supermarket, a pharmacy and a hotel, so you can say that in that sense we have “succeeded”. But as far as I’m concerned, there is still much more to come.
One of the key benefits of delivering the Heyford Park masterplan is the impressive £3.2bn Gross Value Added it is projected to generate over a 10-year period. We are now awaiting planning permission to build a further 9,000 homes, alongside everything needed to support the people who will live there, from medical services and sports facilities to shops, industrial space, community buildings and five new schools. Rail services will be improved, 65,000 trees planted and a 3km park created along the old runway. We’ve made a deliberate choice to go further than the typical approach. At the heart of the masterplan is the goal to become the UK’s first energy surplus town. Not net zero – surplus. With what’s still to come at Heyford, this is really only the start.
That being said, I have other projects on the table. I’m overseeing the development of Oxney Quarter in Hampshire, creating sustainable new homes in the grounds of the former Prince Philip Barracks as part of the wider regeneration of Whitehill & Bordon. It’s another example of community placemaking, creating not just homes, but schools, community infrastructure and green spaces that together make an attractive, sustainable and well-connected place to live.
I’d like to be remembered for delivering some of the largest brownfield, community-led regeneration projects across the UK focused on the community, for example I am the first developer in the UK to build a free school and went onto chair it for an additional eight years. Why? Because it matters.
