Development Diaries

Nick Cuff didn’t start in property. He started in politics, working in the House of Commons for the shadow business minister, a former chartered surveyor who pointed him towards real estate. After a place on the CB Richard Ellis graduate scheme, he spent two years in the depths of the 2007/08 crash, picking through what he calls the graveyard of great intentions.At the same time, he got himself elected as a councillor in Wandsworth, sometimes working 16 or 17-hour days. Then came the unorthodox move: he gave up his grad scheme job to become chair of planning at 28. At the time, Nine Elms, Battersea Power Station and the US Embassy were still early ideas, but the regeneration pipeline was about to take off. He moved client side with Essential Living. Then a coffee with Pocket Living’s founder, Marc Vlessing, turned into 11 years at Pocket. They’d first met years earlier, when Nick visited a Pocket scheme as a sceptical councillor and Marc told him that without schemes like it, thousands of young Londoners would never own a home. Nick went on to help take Pocket into around three-quarters of London, delivering over 1,000 homes.Two years ago, after Pocket’s investors were lukewarm on his plans for a bigger push into rental, he launched Urban Sketch. It does development advisory work and is building a shared living platform.Nick also covers:      •     Where buyers went when the buying market dried up, and where shared living fits in the future of our cities      •     “Seekers and blockers,” and why data could eventually take the ideology out of housing policy      •     The core skills developers need today, and why development is a five to 10-year game      •     Why you should do a left-field job early in your career, and not stay somewhere just for the money

In this Rebels Radio episode, host John Guest sits down with Allan Binns-Gamble of Jetpac. They take stock of where the Building Safety Regulator stands, and what developers need to get right as more schemes head towards Gateway Three.Al was one of the first people to put in a Gateway Two application. He’s since worked on over 50 applications and secured more than 20 approvals, and has helped write safety cases for occupied buildings. Now he’s stepped back from day-to-day delivery to help other businesses get to grips with the Building Safety Act.The latest BSR data looks encouraging, but Al says it needs an asterisk. A rejected application that’s resubmitted and then approved shows only half the story, not as the full journey the client actually went through. And if the regulator pushes from 23 weeks down to the statutory 12, he expects approval rates to drop.Al and John also cover:• Why Al doesn’t share Gareth Bacon’s call for BSR reform, but why information management is the real threat on both sides•  Why contractor-developers are getting the golden thread right• The construction control plan, and why whatever you commit to at Gateway Two you have to live by all the way to Gateway Three• The hidden risk in notifiable changes, including one that took 11 weeks to get a response• Why Gateway Three is the biggest financial risk, with real waits of 16 to 24 weeks against a statutory eight• Why you should start your safety case before the contractor and design team leave site

Phil Mayall was certain he’d be a professional rugby league player, but his dad wanted him to have a backup plan. So his dad, a plasterer, had him labouring for a bricklayer up on the Saddleworth hills. It was so cold they lit fires to keep warm. One day the brickie looked at him and told him not to make the same choices he made.That was the wake-up call. Phil got onto a building studies HND, earned a distinction and went on to a building surveying degree. From there he worked in general practice surveying and at Northern Trust, where he moved into its in-house development arm. In 2006 he joined AMEC, soon to become Muse. Just over a year later, he was handed Salford Central, a scheme he’s still delivering 20 years on. Within months, the financial crash wiped £100 million off its appraisal almost overnight.Phil has been Managing Director of Muse since 2023 and is a board director of the English Cities Fund. He’s also on the board of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and is vice chair of the BPF’s Regional Policy Committee.

Dominic Glanz started out as a number cruncher on Sainsbury's graduate scheme. His final placement was in the financial appraisal team, assessing new stores and extensions. After having to reapply for his job for the third time during the supermarket wars, he joined an ambitious Australian developer with big plans for the UK: Westfield.He spent 15 years there, moving from finance into development by asking for more and always putting his hand up. He helped get the £1.5 billion Stratford scheme open ahead of the 2012 Olympics and led a challenging CPO around the Whitgift Centre in Croydon. He then came full circle, back to Stratford to work on the build-to-rent scheme now known as Coppermaker Square.Five years ago, his old boss brought him to Knight Dragon, custodians of the 17,500-home Greenwich Peninsula masterplan. Now Chief Development Officer, Dom has kept the scheme moving through a brutal residential market, with 430 homes completed last year, 300 on site and a first Gateway Two application just submitted.Dom also covers:•⁠ ⁠Why there's no one-size-fits-all approach to stakeholders, and why you always need a plan B, C and D•⁠ ⁠The three things he thinks would unlock housing, and why stamp duty reform tops the list•⁠ ⁠Why he thinks people should stop hiding behind emails and pick up the phone•⁠ ⁠His regret about staying at Westfield a couple of years too long, and why it's never too late to switch careers•⁠ ⁠Why he still believes in London residential

Niall Farmer's route into development started with a compliment about a stranger's shoes in a Turkish hotel bar at half one in the morning. That stranger was the founder of Mulalley, a £180 million Essex contractor, and two weeks later Niall had a job offer and a 50% pay rise.Getting there wasn't straightforward. He graduated in politics into the global financial crisis and heard nothing back from grad scheme after grad scheme. He got his start client side at Monsoon Accessorize, then moved to Sherrygreen Homes and master planning at Lendlease's Stratford scheme. After that came a tough spell in his dad's construction business, which didn't survive the Brexit and COVID years.Fast forward, he joined Gamuda Land, and that's where his proudest moments sit. He's built a team of 10 and backed Woolwich for student housing before anyone else did; the scheme is now close to full occupancy in its first year. He's also heavily involved in 75 London Wall, a £1 billion-plus office development heading for topping out.Niall also covers:- How Gamuda's asset-agnostic "quick turnaround" strategy works- What he looks for in a partner: organisation, foresight, hindsight, and at least 10% co-investment- Why he thinks we're near the bottom of the cycle, and why now is the time for value-add investorsIf you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and pass it on to a friend or colleague.