Nigel Hugill: The man behind the work-from-home revolution
‘Everything in front of you was not there 18 months ago.’ Nigel Hugill stands in front of a playground, pointing to the swings and climbing frames behind parks and houses.
It’s a sunny spring day in Halton, just outside Rugby in Warwickshire, and residents of a large new housing development are making the most of the weather, taking their children to the playground and having lunch at the cafe. are.
About 1,000 homes have already been built on the 1,200-acre site, plus a primary and secondary school, with 5,000 more to be added by the time the development is completed in 15 years’ time.
Urban & Civic – the company Hugill co-founded and leads with Robin Butler in 2009 – is the “master developer” of the project and 13 others across England. This means that it takes responsibility for the site from conception and planning to construction and completion by housebuilders.
Hugill established Urban and Civic “for the purpose of building outside the M25, but within 100 miles of London” in areas with the greatest population growth, and therefore the greatest housing demand. The company sees these major developments as the key to solving the housing crisis, at a time when the government is pursuing its level-up agenda.
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age 64
family Married with four children; Hughill and his wife met as teenagers.
education Teasdale School in County Durham; degree in Politics at Christ Church, Oxford; Master in Labor Law and Labor Economics at the London School of Economics.
pay £1.3m in salaries and bonuses in the final year 2020-21 before Wellcome Trust bought Urban & Civic; He says that his salary has remained on the same level.
past holidays Two recent ski trips to Val d’Isère, where he has a property.
The best advice she’s been given? “A great quote from the Merchant of Venice, ‘Let the old wrinkles come with silence and laughter’.”
biggest career mistake “I’ve been incredibly lucky. When I went to work for Chelsfield, the substitute was working before Goldman Sachs floated. Financially, there’s no doubt that it must have been the biggest mistake of my career “
he overuses words “Interesting, and structural.”
how does he relax “My wife used to say ‘he never rests.'” However, he adds: “I rightly envision the redesign of modern hospitals.”
Urban & Civic only buys brownfield sites in major commuter locations – such as Halton, once home to the Rugby radio station, where the first transatlantic telephone service began nearly 100 years ago. Others include a former RAF base at Alconbury, Cambridgeshire, – the company’s first plan, started in the depths of the recession – as well as sites in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
The centerpiece of the Halton development is the secondary school, attended by 180 Year 7 students since its opening in September 2021. It was built around the radio station’s Grade II-listed buildings, which include the transmission hall and power room. 64-year-old Hugill’s enthusiasm for the project is evident as he climbs up the stairs to the main building, declaring that he has built a third secondary school, the best he has ever built. “Just look at them: They feel right at home here. I love watching it,” Hagil says, looking at some of the students.
Hugill is no stranger to exaggeration: He reels a dizzying array of facts and figures about a joint venture with Aviva Investors — and Urban & Civic’s other projects.
A colleague, who has worked with Hugill for 15 years, describes him as someone who “cares about the details”, and “thinks five to six steps beyond what others are passionate about”. has the capacity.
Although he grew up in the North-East, and the secondary school at Barnard Castle – which he jokes is now made famous by Dominic Cummings – Hughill’s work was not always focused on the areas of England. He left home to study at Oxford University – the first student from his school to go there – before moving to London for a master’s degree and then a career in banking.
He entered the property after joining the small developer Chelsfield, became its owner and then, when it turned 35, became the chief executive officer of a listed company. During this time, along with a stint at the Australian-owned property firm Lendleys, Hugill began to shape the capital – the city he has now called home for more than four decades, although his County Durham roots still remain in his vocals. are audible.
Two of London’s shopping centres, owned by Australian company Westfield to the east and west of the city, as well as the transformation of the obsolete former industrial area around Stratford into an athletes’ village for the 2012 Olympics, were among Hugill and’s larger regeneration projects. Butler, co-founder of Urban & Civic, did the work. That track record was probably partly why Urban & Civic was acquired in 2021 by the medical research charity Wellcome Trust as part of its investment portfolio, which Hugill says will give the business “further political credibility” will help to grow.
These developments in the company’s life come at a time when planning rules have again hit the headlines, as last week’s speech by the Queen proposed allowing more local input into the plan.
Since advising Sir Bob Kerslake at the Homes and Communities Agency, England’s former housing and regeneration body, Hughill has been convinced that “large new settlements or urban expansions, or the contribution of local authorities that create a lot of new homes in one Location” is necessary to deal with population growth in south-east England. They believe that so-called “infill” developments, where houses are built in undeveloped parts of existing settlements, will not create anything resembling the number of houses needed.
The government’s new leveling-up bill, which includes measures designed to placate Conservative voters in the “red wall” seats that Labor won in the 2019 election, “with more large sites” in south-east England point to a practical consequence”. it is said. Urban & Civic specializes in this.
New home in Halton. Photograph: Richard Secker/The Observer
The new flexibility of the post-pandemic world of work has made Rugby and other regional cities more attractive, and encouraged families to move out of London. Such transfers boosted sales by 30% more than expected during the pandemic. “A lot of people in rugby work in London, in particular. They commute five days a week and have no way of going back if they have a choice,” says Hagill, explaining spending in your neighborhood. Adding in the more time and money done “helps with your complete sense of identity.”
Halton is four miles from Rugby train station, accessible using the new link road built by Urban & Civic, and is already served by a bus route. Travelers are clearly a target market: a large poster urging people to “join our growing community” is prominently displayed in the station car park.
He believes the change will boost local economies, as flexible workers spend money locally during the week, not just on the weekend. However, he does offer a caveat: “You have to be careful about underestimating the change resulting from working from home, because it’s basically just a middle-class option.”
Home working also has its disadvantages, especially for city centers and small service businesses – from sandwich shops to dry cleaners – that depend on the business of office workers, something that Hugill found at the Center for Cities thinktank. Keeps busy in his other role as Chairman of the “Fridays are looking pretty weak,” he says of the post-Covid work pattern, with many office-based workers choosing to end the week at home.
Despite this new workplace flexibility, he believes labor relations are being put to the test: “At the moment, people are being paid equally, and London is getting loads and everything else, and It won’t last a period.”
True to his County Durham roots, Hughill would like to see the level in action, but does not believe this is achieved only by building more homes in the north of England or by relocating government jobs to different parts of the country. “You can’t build local economies out of housing alone,” he says. However, post-pandemic work patterns may also become part of the answer. Of the capital, Hugill says, “over time more household chores will somewhat undermine the London-centric nature of the UK economy.” “But it is much more than being able to take care of itself.”
