“The Number of New Homes Being Built Doesn’t Scratch the Surface” an interview with Tristan Samuels
In the latest of our Property Leadership interviews, Philip Foster chats with with Tristan Samuels, Group Development and New Business Director at Vivid. With over 25 years’ property experience in the private and public sectors, Tristan shares his thoughts on current issues facing the sector and explains why his advice for anyone entering the sector is to take every opportunity.
Tristan, how did you get into the housing sector?
I didn’t take a traditional career route but have always moved forward by seizing opportunities. Born and raised in South Africa I only really went to university to avoid Conscription! I ended up doing a surveying degree, which I actually really enjoyed. I gained experience working across Africa including Zambia, Angola and Ethiopia. My grandparents are British and so I came here in 1998 on a working holiday and have been here ever since. I started working for private house builders on construction sites pretty much on day one, starting as a site engineer and then I moved into project management and progressed to bigger schemes. Then, just before the recession, I decided to go into property development which turned out to be a tough couple of years and the business went into administration, but I learnt a lot.
I then moved into local government which I thought would be for six months or so to pay the mortgage, but I ended up staying at Westminster City Council for the next five years. Their property assets were phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal, but unbelievably no one understood what they owned. I pitched to the chief executive that I thought we needed a development team, and he put me to work with a guy called Ben Denton (now the Chief Executive of L&G Affordable Homes). This was in around 2009, and by the time I left the council, we had a pipeline of about two and a half thousand homes in the planning process and we were on site with about 600. Some of those projects are still being delivered now. It was such a diverse and interesting role and a really exciting time.
From there I moved down to Portsmouth City Council where I took on a much wider remit covering transport, planning, economic growth, skills and employment as well as property and development. It was a chance to lift myself out of the detail and start to think more how everything should come together to create a great place. I really enjoyed my time there. The council’s ambition was second to none. Local councillors and the teams were all aligned in terms of what they wanted to achieve which was fantastic.
When I started looking for my next challenge I realised I wanted to get back towards development and then the opportunity at Vivid Homes came up. I’ve been here around 18 months now. As an organisation we’re doing phenomenally well, and are the fifth biggest RP developer in the in the country. Last year we handed over just over 1,500 homes and we have a pipeline of about 9,000 homes with about 85 live sites at the moment.
Lots of organisations are going through a difficult time in terms of development, how do you continue to grow your development pipeline at Vivid?
We are lucky, the geographical area we operate in hasn’t seen the same downward valuations as places like London and further north, we also haven’t seen very many contractors or subcontractors going into administration. We have also been fortuitous in that the nature of our stock is traditional housing that is not too old. We haven’t had many tall buildings affected by the changes in legislations. And we’re a balanced business so we’re really focused on getting our repairs done within 28 days and upgrading our existing assets. So with those elements under control we can focus on making sure we have the capacity to do the development we want, but also making sure we don’t breach our golden rules, which make us resilient to any big changes. The Board has really focused on our mantra which is more homes, bright futures.
What do you think about the fact that so many RPs have let a lot of people go from development departments?
There are so many people in housing need on waiting lists and the number of homes being built hardly scratches the surface. Development is so important, but I do understand why a lot of those businesses have changed. I think it’s down to changing regulations, the fact that the social housing regulator is focused on existing customers rather than new buildings, and that even though the government says housing is a number one priority that doesn’t always correlate across all government departments.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I think to be a good leader you can’t have a single style you need to be flexible and understand how to get the best out of people and out of the situation. I’ve been lucky enough to work with and receive support from some really inspirational leaders over my career, some very detail focused and others with more of a broad overview approach and they have all impacted on me and my style.
What keeps driving you forward?
I love the challenge of development. I like seeing things happen, the thrill of the deal, seeing a project come forward and a place being developed.
But equally, I think it’s so important to listen to the people that move into those homes, to hear their experiences and then feed that back to our staff so they can be proud of the outcome and understand the impact they are having on our customers.
What advice would you give to anyone looking at advancing their career or moving into the affordable housing sector?
At the moment development is a tough business to break into. There are not enough skilled people out there and so I hope the government will start to focus on ensuring that there are more SMEs supplying the sector and that more RPs are able to develop more homes.
As an industry there is a huge skills shortage, there simply aren’t enough skilled people to deliver the number of homes required. Everyone’s really focused on the planning problem, but actually the whole supply chain needs to step up and be ready. We need skilled people at all levels of the industry and that includes development.
My career advice would be don’t be scared to try new things and make sure you take every opportunity. Once you get into an organisation sometimes you do need to be prepared to take a step sideways to move forward. I would say, get yourself into an organisation that’s got scale and ambition. And then once you’re in there, look to grow. There are always opportunities in large organisations where you can put your hand up and move forward. Local authorities are fantastic seed beds where there is just so much to do and learn. And be curious, don’t be scared to ask questions, learn from others and listen.
How do you see AI in the future of social housing?
As an executive we do talk a lot about AI and what the business could look like in five to 10 years and how to make the most of technology to improve efficiencies and enhance the customer experience.I think roles will change but I’m optimistic that AI isn’t going to be the death of the workforce and that there will be more jobs and different jobs for people to do.
Listen to the full interview with Tristan online.
Ocean Edge Executive Search provides award-winning recruitment services to social housing, local authorities and the wider property sector. To find your next role, or to discuss your hiring needs please contact Philip Foster on philipfoster@oceanedge.biz or call 023 8000 1153.