Development Diaries

Chris Hunt's path into property started with a business plan written for his dad and a £22,000 loan to buy and convert a house in Bristol. Not many people would back themselves like that straight out of a recruitment job they hated - but Chris isn't most people.What followed was one of the more deliberately engineered careers you'll hear on this podcast. While at Cushman & Wakefield, Chris literally drew a line chart - buy, lease, asset manage, then do it all himself - pinned it to the fridge, and spent the next decade checking boxes. Leasing. Investment. Legal & General as an asset manager. Then, in 2013, he and his business partner Zak launched V7 with no clients, no seed assets, and an idea that turned out to be about five years ahead of the market.The pitch was simple: the big institutional fund managers were stretched, their in-house asset and development management teams couldn't cover everything, and outsourcing to a specialist made obvious sense. Every fund manager they met agreed with them. And then said no. The big houses couldn't be seen to be outsourcing - their investors thought they did it all in-house. So Chris and the team went one tier down, found the mid-market managers who were even more stretched and had fewer places to hide, and built a reputation one asset at a time.Twelve years on, V7 manages a £1.9 billion portfolio - 1.5 billion of it in central London offices - has a 1,000,000 sq ft industrial platform built from scratch in under two years, and has just launched a living business focused on building the new-school version of Victorian terraced housing. Three separate businesses under one group, all sharing capital, ideas, and central services. And still only 18 people.Chris gets into the detail on all of it, the diversification play that came out of pandemic-era office anxiety, why he thinks now is a buying opportunity in central London that most investors are sleeping on, and what it actually takes to find marginal gains in a development model where everyone's working from broadly the same playbook.

Anna Strongman is a fascinating guest. From studying history at university, to a scholarship in Japan working in economic policy, to walking the streets of Edinburgh with a clipboard, to spending nearly two decades helping shape King's Cross into one of the most celebrated regeneration projects in Europe.Now she's CEO of Oxford University Development, a public-private joint venture between Oxford University and Legal & General, building the infrastructure to support one of the world's great knowledge economies.Anna reflects on what it was like to join Related Argent at 35 people and grow with the business across every discipline - asset management, estate management, development, investment - before eventually running Related Argent as Managing Partner. She talks candidly about the importance of cultural fit, how unstructured environments suit some people brilliantly and terrify others, and why she did a masters in property valuation and real estate finance at night school because she refused to be caught short on the language of the industry.What excites her now? Affordable housing, yes, but more specifically the Oxford-Cambridge Golden Triangle and the very real risk that the UK becomes a brilliant incubator for ideas that get commercialised somewhere else. She's not alarmist about it, but she is urgent. Two to three years, not twenty.

Baerbel Schuett’s career is quite the rollercoaster.She set out for a career in a trade in Germany, ended up training as an architect instead, then took a leap to South Africa as a site architect - where a stalled project, a few sliding doors moments, and a fair bit of grit led her into construction management. She was often the only woman on site, managing teams of men twice her size, and won them over not by shouting louder, but by treating people with respect. That instinct never left her.A move to the UK for love (not a job) saw her drift into project management almost by accident, before residential development found her - and she never looked back. Thirteen years at LondonNewcastle followed, joining right before the global financial crisis and helping rebuild the business from the ground up, working with everyone from pension funds to housing associations.What really comes through in this chat is that Baerbel doesn't measure her career in buildings - she measures it in people. The proudest moments she shares aren't planning consents or completed schemes, they're the messages from people years later telling her she changed the course of their career.She's refreshingly honest about hesitation too - admitting there were times in her personal life and in starting her own business where she knew something wasn't right and stayed anyway. Baerbel shines a light on what actually makes someone exceptional in development, how to position yourself for a board seat, and where she thinks the next big opportunities lie.A brilliant, honest conversation with someone who's built a career - and a reputation - on backing people.If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and pass it on to a friend or colleague.

In this episode of Development Diaries, host John Guest sits down with James Coulsey, co-founder and director of Trigon DM - a B Corp-certified development management consultancy helping clients cut through complexity and deliver projects with clarity, precision, and confidence.James' journey into real estate is anything but conventional. Starting out as a civil engineer on site, he spent a decade building offices, residential schemes, and more before making a pivotal transition into development - taking a chance, asking bold questions, and learning to understand not just how buildings are built, but why they exist in the first place.In this conversation, James and John explore:- The sliding doors moment that took James from site engineer to development professional, and the developer who took a chance on a builder with a lot to learn- What sets great development managers apart, and why curiosity and holistic thinking matter more than asset class experience- The Trigon story, how James and co-founder Andy combined their backgrounds in construction, development, and ESG to build a business that works across sectors from logistics to co-living- The regulatory challenge, why layering regulation on top of regulation is stifling innovation, and what a simpler, outcomes-focused approach could unlock for UK development- Public vs. private sector collaboration, and why the industry needs to get better at telling a positive story about what development actually delivers for communities- What excites James most, from partnership models and GLA policy shifts to regenerative building materials like mycelium, hempcrete, and self-healing concreteIf you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and pass it on to a friend or colleague in the industry.

In this episode of Development Diaries, John is joined by Jonathan Smales, founder and CEO of Human Nature - the sustainable, community-focused developer behind Phoenix, a 685-home neighbourhood in Lewes, and one of the most unconventional figures in UK real estate.Jonathan's route into the built environment began not in a surveyor's office or a lecture theatre, but at Greenpeace, where as Managing Director in the late 1980s he oversaw membership growth from 40,000 to nearly 400,000 - and, almost by accident, commissioned one of the UK's first green commercial buildings. That act of making, rather than campaigning, changed everything.What followed was a decade leading the Earth Centre, reclaiming two South Yorkshire coal mines as a world centre for sustainability, before founding Beyond Green — a consultancy advising government, pension funds, the Olympics, and major new communities across the UK. The frustration of watching vision erode between the drawing board and the ground eventually led him to become the principal himself. Human Nature was the answer.The conversation covers Jonathan's circuitous but coherent path from the civil service to Greenpeace to brownfield regeneration; why real estate has both an ambition crisis and an identity crisis; what it really takes to push genuinely innovative placemaking through a system that wasn't built for it; and why the industry's greatest challenges - climate, nature, social division - are also its greatest opportunity. Jonathan also answers Chris Fleetwood's question from last episode on how the industry attracts the next generation of talent, and leaves a question of his own for the next guest.

In this episode of Development Diaries, John is joined by Chris Fleetwood, a man whose route into real estate began not in a lecture theatre but at a careers fair, in a 45-minute conversation with a chartered surveyor whose name he never caught - yet who changed the course of his life. Chris takes us back to his Birmingham roots and a moment of genuine inspiration that set him on the path to a real estate degree and his first job navigating a deeply hostile early-90s market. What followed was a career that took him through Jones Lang Wootton, J. Sainsbury Developments, Parkridge, and ultimately twelve years at Landsec - where he served as Development Director across a portfolio that included landmark mixed-use regeneration, retail, PBSA, and the long-haul decontamination of a 30-acre brownfield battery site in his hometown of Birmingham. Now at Redevco, Chris operates at a genuinely pan-European level across urban regeneration, logistics, retail warehousing, and a growing debt platform. The conversation covers the leap from agency to development, what it really takes to absorb complex deals fast, the realities of cross-border working, and why the UK real estate industry needs to do a far better job of showing young people - from all parts of society - what a career in the built environment can actually look like.

In this episode of Development Diaries, host John Guest is joined by Sunny Johal, Development Director at Glenbrook and fellow podcast host - a man whose route into real estate is about as far from the traditional graduate scheme as it gets, making his story all the more compelling for anyone who has ever felt like they don't quite fit the conventional mould.Sunny takes us back to his Birmingham roots, a grammar school he didn't want to attend, A-levels he freely admits he bombed, and a decision at 16 to start sweeping floors on a building site rather than heading to university.What followed was a decade of hard graft in trade and construction - labouring, ground works, site management - before a Taylor Woodrow apprenticeship opened the door to main contracting at scale with Vinci and Long Cross. Curiosity did the rest: a part-time degree, a Masters in real estate investment, and eventually a chance approach from a recruiter led him to Argent and the world of front-end development at King's Cross.Now at Glenbrook, Sonny brings that rare combination of construction depth and development breadth to some genuinely complex mixed-use schemes.The conversation covers the practicalities of viability, the frustrations of theUK planning system, and why the country needs clearer rules of the game to attract competitive international capital.

In this episode of Development Diaries, host John Guest is joined by Simon Harding-Roots, Regional Managing Director for the South at Muse, and formerly Managing Director of London at the Crown Estate and Executive Director for Major Projects at Grosvenor - a career built on navigatingcomplex urban regeneration, placemaking, and public-private partnership across some of the UK's most significant real estate organisations.Simon traces his path from a teenage temping stint in the planning department of Elmbridge Borough Council - a genuine sliding doors moment - through a geography degree, an RICS qualification at Drivers Jonas, andinto the highest levels of estate management and strategic development.He reflects on the contrast between working within long-term custodial organisations like the Crown Estate and Grosvenor versus the sharper commercial pace of private development, and what each taught him about patience, partnership, and getting the most out of complex urban land.The conversation explores Simon's deep belief in brownfield-first development, the transformative potential of infrastructure investment like theElizabeth line, and why - despite the very real viability challenges facing the sector - he remains a committed optimist.

In this episode of Development Diaries, host John Guest sits down with Harry Knibb, Vice President of Development at Oxford Properties and Non- Executive Director at the Academy of Urbanism, whose career spans project management, Residential led mixed-use development, and high-quality London office across some of the world's most ambitious real estate portfolios.Harry shares his journey from a philosophy degree to a graduate role at M3 Consulting, through an MSc at Reading, and into the upper echelons of international real estate investment and development. He reflects on the blurred lines between project management and development management, the value of being a sponge early in your career, and the importance of putting your hand up for new challenges before you feel fully ready.Beyond his own trajectory, Harry explores Oxford Properties' current European strategy - from landmark London offices to logistics and life sciences - and his conviction that high-quality core London real estate remains one of the most resilient asset classes through any cycle. The conversation tackles the industry's biggest challenge: decarbonising the built environment whilst delivering more homes and workspace, and why moving fast and breaking things simply doesn't work in real estate.We wrap up the conversation with the optimism question and challenge the industry to keep the narrative upbeat to enable us to attract capital and the workforce of the future.

In this episode of Development Diaries, host John Guest sits down with industry legend David Partridge, former senior partner and chairman of Argent and Related Argent, whose 35-year career has shaped some of the UK's most iconic developments including King's Cross, Brindley Place, and Manchester Piccadilly - spanning over 21 million square feet of transformative real estate.David shares his journey from qualified architect to development leader, offering candid insights into his early days at Cambridge, co-founding Gebler Tooth Partridge in the 1980s, and joining Argent in 1990. He reflects on navigating multiple recessions, pioneering mixed-use developments, and the evolution of placemaking from a theoretical concept to industry standard practice.Beyond his development legacy, David discusses his current mission driving the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard and founding Senze, a data-driven business helping social housing providers retrofit homes efficiently and affordably. Using smart monitoring technology, Senze is tackling one of the sector's biggest challenges: decarbonising 29 million UK homes.The conversation explores the importance of staying curious, finding creative solutions to industry challenges.