“With the John Lewis brand and our approach to service and all the attributes that we bring as an operator will hopefully enable our residents and encourage our residents to stay longer, reduce void rates and ultimately, increase investment returns, which kicks back out into the investment side of the model, where we will be a long-term stakeholder and shareholder also.”
Susan Freeman
Hi, I’m Susan Freeman. Welcome back to our PropertyShe podcast series brought to you by Mishcon de Reya in association with the London Real Estate Forum, where I get to interview some of the key influencers in the world of real estate and the built environment. Today, I am delighted to welcome Katherine Russell. Katherine is an accomplished leader in the Build to Rent sector with almost two decades of real estate experience. As a founding member of John Lewis Partnership’s Build to Rent strategy, she’s been instrumental in developing and operating 10,000 homes and securing a pivotal joint venture with abrdn. Her career spans diverse roles in retail, mixed-use development and asset management, including her tenure as Group Head of Real Estate for John Lewis Partnership. Committed to social value and wellbeing, Katherine also serves on the boards of ULI UK, New West End Company and Dolphin Living, actively contributing to the community. So now we’re going to hear from Katherine about her career to date and her role in spearheading John Lewis’s new Build to Rent business. Katherine, good morning. I know you’ve had a busy morning so thank you very much for joining us.
Katherine Russell
Hello, lovely to be here.
Susan Freeman
So, before we talk about the new John Lewis Build to Rent business let’s talk a little bit about you and your path into real estate. I know that you did a Land Management Degree at Reading. What prompted you to go into real estate?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, good question and actually, it starts early on for me so, in the very early days I kind of remember property being part and parcel of family life really. So, my mum’s hobby, as strange as it sounds, was dialling up the internet in the evening with a glass of wine and searching Rightmove for the crown jewel to move to and then weekends were spent travelling the country trying to find their perfect home with my dad’s aspiration at weekends and his downtime was to try and build his own house. Now unfortunately that dream never came to fruition but yeah, it was kind of a hobby that they both loved and in the week my dad was actually the District Valuer for the Government Valuation Office so, my kind of interest in property was probably both spurred by my parents and then I suppose the one bit of advice my dad grilled into me from a very early age was, always go into a profession and initially, I had a fascination with Law, I was really, really intrigued by it but I wouldn’t say I was the most academic person so I had to work really, really hard at school and I did and from there I, I suppose I did a couple of work experience things in property and property just ticked all the boxes, I’m a creative person, I want things to have a tangibility to them but I also want to make a fundamental difference and property kind of fulfilled all of those needs ultimately, so, yeah, managed to get the grades and me and my Fiat Cinquecento went off to Reading.
Susan Freeman
But your parents must have been thrilled. I think with a lot of people that sort of early introduction to property might have put them off.
Katherine Russell
Yeah, potentially. Oh to be fair actually, I did do a couple of stints with my dad, work experience, and I fundamentally decided I didn’t want to do business rates and low and behold, my first rotation doing my APC was in business rates. But no, as I say, it kind of ticked a lot of boxes for me.
Susan Freeman
And where did you work initially before you went to John Lewis?
Katherine Russell
I started out life at a very small firm called NAI Fuller Peiser, which was great really, it was like a family, it was, it had a lot of warmth to it, I really enjoyed working there. Then from there it was Atisreal and then from there went to BNP Paribas, working in the City and it was really, really good training ground for me, really thoroughly enjoyed it but that was at the time in, by the time I was at BNP Paribas, the market crashed in 2008, we’d just bought our first home as well and unfortunately they were taking everyone through a round of redundancies so at that time, obviously had to work through what that meant for me, had to go through a process but at the same time I started looking for a job elsewhere and that’s where I came across an advert for John Lewis and having already been a Saturday girl, my first job was at Waitrose serving bacon rolls and coffee, it reminded me of what a great company they were, their ethos, their values and who they were as a business and I was actually in a fortunate position where I got through the redundancy process at BNP and I got a job offer at John Lewis and so I had to make a decision and I think whilst I hadn’t realised it at the time, my decision to switch from I suppose the corporate side of consultancy onto the client side of John Lewis, I think it was the real pull that John Lewis brought was the ethos of who they are, the social impact that they have, which actually is a core thread within me today, which caused me to jump ship.
Susan Freeman
What role did you take when you joined John Lewis?
Katherine Russell
Property management so, it was on the John Lewis department store side and it was just doing the nuts and bolts really, rent reviews, service charge, estate management, sort of run of the mill churn stuff really but really good again, training ground and the beauty of John Lewis and probably why I’ve been there for seventeen years is the breadth and diversity of what the organisation offers so, whilst I started there, there were so many opportunities and I just kept on putting my hand up and saying yes to everything that came my way and the role and the doors that opened continued to open and have kept me interested throughout that time.
Susan Freeman
So, you clearly did very well because in 2017 I think, you became Group Head of Real Estate there, which I think also covered planning and policy and commercial so, you know, quite a substantial role.
Katherine Russell
Actually, it was prior to that, I was actually on maternity leave with my first daughter and while I was on maternity leave, they said they were restructuring the team, the John Lewis property team, and they were creating a ‘Head of’ role and they wanted me to apply and I hadn’t anticipated coming back to work so early and I had a choice to make at that moment in time as to whether I wanted to go for the role or not and I do feel that the choice that I made at that time to go for that role and subsequently getting it was the pathway to where I am now and actually my boss at that time taking what I think was actually a fundamental risk really, I was quite, well was very young, a new mum and trying to balance all of those things but he took a risk and I took a jump and we ended up where we did and that led onto the role that you’ve just described, which yeah was far reaching beyond real estate but again, loved it.
Susan Freeman
So at what stage did you decide then to take on the role you’re currently in, which is Head of the new Build to Rent business?
Katherine Russell
I think there is a common theme with me that I get twitchy feet and I’m a very curious person and the beauty of the John Lewis estate is it’s vast, it’s got so many dimensions to it, it’s retail, it’s supermarkets, we own farms, we own a village in Leckford, hotels, clubs, you name it we’ve got it, so we’ve got this vast real estate portfolio. The current thread across my career throughout the partnership has been it’s beautifully located, in fact exceptionally well located but heavily and woefully underutilised and when I took on the first role on the John Lewis Department Store, so my remit was to go and find what can we do to take the surplus space and generate some value out of it but ultimately, had to be linked to our core purpose. and just to give you an idea of scale of how underutilised the John Lewis portfolio was, typical retailer seeks and 80/20 split in terms of front of house, back of house and the John Lewis Department Store portfolio is about 60/40 in favour of back of house, so the scale of opportunity is immense but the ability to unlock is significantly hard. So that’s kind of where the nuance of the idea around how do we extract value and utilise the space that we’ve got originally came from. Looked at various different initiatives and then when Chris Harris arrived, who was my boss at that time, we started looking at build to rent which was kind of this emerging new asset class and initially we started looking at the operating side of the business and thought do you know what, John Lewis is exceptionally well-known for our service, our trust, our loyalty, and we’ve got a lot of credentials and credibility in that space and actually the Build to Rent market is essentially that also, you know it’s a very hospitality service orientated business, therefore sounds like there’s lots of transferrable skills related to that, so we started looking in that space initially and quite frankly we concluded that the commercials and the margins on the operating business alone weren’t significant enough but that’s where we started to build what I now describe as our vertically integrated business model, which sees us develop, operate and invest so, we take our sites and we develop on top of the air space or adjacent car parks, we create a development profit out the back of it. We then operate what I describe as the sandwich filling in between it and investment because the operation hypothesis is, and we’re starting to hopefully prove that now, is that with the John Lewis brand and our approach to service and all the attributes that we bring as an operator will hopefully enable our residents and encourage our residents to stay longer, reduce void rates and ultimately, increase ultimate investment returns, which kicks back out into the investment side of the model, where we will be a long-term stakeholder and shareholder also.
Susan Freeman
It does seem to make an awful lot of sense and coming from a retail property perspective where brand and service are key, the housing rental sector must look very backward.
Katherine Russell
I suppose it’s, I suppose if you look in America and continental Europe, this is an asset class that’s very well established and a well-oiled machine, I think just the psyche of the UK around homeownership and renting, it’s very, very different but I do feel that that is starting to change and you know there are some great Build to Rent operators out there doing a fabulous job and really understand the customer centric orientation of the product and I think, you know, institutional investors coming into the market as well, they really understand the value that Build to Rent can play so, I think it’s on a journey, it’s still very new in terms of it as an asset class and you know it’s been really fascinating as we’ve been stepping into our journey and exploring the opportunity with councils as well around how well established it is in different boroughs, the understanding of it versus those who don’t, so it’s still got a way to go but loads of opportunity I think.
Susan Freeman
It’s interesting that it really has taken a while to get off the ground because we were involved at the beginning with East Village for Delancey, the Olympic athletes’ village which was retrofitted and 2012, it was the first scale rental scheme for decades, you know, it has taken a few years for the idea to get off the ground but I agree, there’s so much potential and the idea of having you know such a powerful brand as John Lewis coming into the sector is really exciting. So, let’s talk a little bit about how you’re going about you know bringing this to fruition, so you have a joint venture with abrdn. I just wondered how it came about and how you will work with them and how much investment is coming in from them?
Katherine Russell
So, we’ve been working with abrdn for probably over two years now but actually we spent a year looking for our preferred partner, purely because I think well, I suppose if you go into any type of partnership you need to make sure that your goals and ambitions are wholly aligned and we had some great potential suiters but what was really clear to us was being appreciative of what each party bring to the table and so, you know, some great frontrunners in terms of potential partners for us but I think the conclusion was actually, they had everything that we thought we could bring to the table also, whereas with abrdn they’ve got some great attributes and where they don’t, we supplement those and vice versa so it works really well as a relationship in that respective and then we’ve also got this very long term overarching ambition so, whilst we’ve gone into the joint venture relationship with them on our first three seed sites, it was always set up with the intention to be a long term strategic partnership.
Susan Freeman
What’s the extent of abrdn’s portfolio at the moment and have you actually started working with them on their portfolio?
Katherine Russell
So, part of the deal, part of the strategy quite frankly is, a lot of people have said to us well actually, you know you’re not credible in this space, you know you haven’t operated anything before, you haven’t even developed residential, albeit we have actually developed quite a lot of stuff on our retail business and actually we have developed some residential also but not at the scale we’re talking about today. So as part of the deal with abrdn we recognised we needed to demonstrate that credibility to not only ourselves but to the communities we were going to operate in and to the broader market so we set out about strategy on not only creating a joint venture for the development side of it but also on the operational side of it whereby we wanted to gain access to portfolios that were already stabilised, to enable us to come in and manage those assets from day one. So, we have had the privilege and the opportunity with abrdn to start managing some sites, so we now have 500 16.41, so 800 this year of homes under management, which we’ll be scaling to just over 1000 next year and so all of last year Sophie Hine who has done an absolutely amazing job, built our operating platform and Sophie comes from a retail background, which I think again is really important when we’re transitioning into a retail into a Build to Rent space given the linkages we spoke about earlier and one of the things that I’ve been quite I suppose direct with in terms of how I set up the team was a balance of retail and John Lewis experience to supplement and complement you know the need for a Build to Rent expertise per se as well, so that we can deliver Build to Rent the John Lewis way. But yeah, as I say, we’ve spent, last year was all about building our operating platform, we then took over the management of those sites and as I say, we’re scaling it this year and that’s been a really interesting journey for us. We are now trending on HomeViews, which is the Tripadvisor of the rental market, trending above the landlord average on all service metrics, which is a really great achievement, you know given that it’s early days for us, we’re pretty proud of that but there’s still a lot to learn and there’s still a number of things that we want to test and trial and work with residents around understanding what their needs are, so actually when we develop our own sites and we’re live in our own sites that we can deliver the best possible resident experience that we can.
Susan Freeman
So, you mentioned doing things “the John Lewis way” and I’m sort of intrigued to know how that will manifest itself, you know what will be the USP of the John Lewis sort of rental experience?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, fabulous question. So, our USP and I think the Build to Rent market has a very established USP in its own right in terms that are relative to the PRS market and I have found that when we looked in the States and Europe and across some amazing schemes in the UK that there is a standardisation typically of what the proposition is and you know 70% of that I think everybody does, you know there’s the kind of hygiene factor of Build to Rent. We’re looking at the top slice of that. So what’s the 30% that we can do differently, that’s unique to us, that we can do and nobody else can? And quite frankly, that to us is all around service and customer service and the ecosystem that I describe of services that we have at our disposal so, we’re not going to be in an amenity race or anything like that, we will differentiate on our service capability so, when I talk about the ecosystem of services, if you think about the partnership we have got access to a whole host of different services from Waitrose delivery, we’ve got a cookery school, we’ve got wine tasting, we’ve got access to some of the most amazing and well-known brands on the department store side so, we’re thinking about how do we utilise all of that access for our residents. So, we’ve been trialling some, some events in some of the schemes where we’ve been doing some bespoke beauty events which sold out within less than 24 hours and it’s just bringing all of those things to bear for our residents that you can’t necessarily get elsewhere and it’s you know curating, using the curation of the facilities we have, the partnership across the John Lewis, Waitrose and financial services to the benefit of our residents. And then it’s thinking about the practicalities of how we’re actually going to be serving our customers and residents day in day out, so we have a school of service that is hosted in our Stratford store, which is all about getting everyone who serves on the shop floor or with our residents feeling confident about how to deal with their customers day in day out so, we, I suppose we think about how we train our staff and get them comfortable in their area of expertise and that will be the same when it comes to out Build to Rent partners as well, so it’s utilising all of that. And then I suppose the third element is, if you think about the structure and nature of the partnership, we are a co-owned business and with that comes an approach to business which is very, very different so, we are run by a democracy, we’re all known as ‘partners’ rather than as employees and we all feel that we have a say in how the business is run and there are various channels which are proactively encouraged day in day out in which to engage in and that creates a very different culture within the partnership and it’s how do we utilise and strengthen that back into the residents, where the Build to Rent community is all about how do you build a day in day out community, so we’re thinking about how do we apply some of those principles there to cultivate a community that works in a residential format.
Susan Freeman
It sounds great and in terms of where the sort of price point because with this level of service, are the flats going to be sort of at the top end of the scale in terms of pricing? How are you positioning it?
Katherine Russell
No, so they won’t be top end. Our ambition here is to pitch mid-market so it’s not high end, it’s not low end, we want to attract as many key workers as well as possible and I suppose when it comes to the demographic of the Build to Rent resident, we’re really keen to encourage a wide spectrum of residents in terms of age so, everything from young professionals starting out through to those wanting to downsize and I think that’s the beauty and potential of the Build to Rent market in its own right anyway and that a lot of people are having to spend a lot longer in rental accommodation than they ever anticipated and there comes a, you know, a great opportunity I think for the Build to Rent market and then equally on the other end of the scale you’ve got those who actually have the ability to downsize and release equity and start living a completely different, independent life.
Susan Freeman
And do you anticipate that this new business will develop a separate brand or will it be just branded as part of the John Lewis Partnership?
Katherine Russell
That’s a very timely question. So, later this year our ambition is to do a soft introduction into the brand that will carry the John Lewis BTR venture and that will be the fourth line of business as what we describe it corporately, so you’ll have John Lewis, Waitrose, our Financial Services business and then our Build to Rent business. It will have its own identity but we will seek to endorse it by the John Lewis Partnership’s credentials as well so, more on that to come later this year.
Susan Freeman
We will watch with interest. So, let’s talk a bit about the developments that you are working on at the moment. So, let’s start with Bromley. So I know you very recently received planning consent to build 350 flats right next to Bromley South Station so, can you tell us a little bit about your vision for the development and what it’s likely to look like and feel like.
Katherine Russell
So, I mean the site today obviously has a Waitrose on it, it’s at the back end of the Bromley High Street and actually limits connections back into the High Street or what is described as the Southern Gateway which is the other side of Bromley, so actually the scheme proposes in addition to a newly refurbished Waitrose store which will be stat of the art with the latest proposition and thinking, it will reconnect the site back into the High Street with cycling and pedestrian routes. At the moment for those that know the sites in detail, there is a lot of congestion as you access into the site so we look to improve that and make it more pedestrian friendly. There will be a large public piazza to encourage both the residents and the broader community to engage in in various different curated events and then as you say, we’ve got 350 homes on top of the Waitrose where there’ll be a level of amenity attached to all of that, everything from gyms, co-working and then, as I say, kind of supplemented by excellent service attached to that and then we have one of the things that I’ve been quite passionate about across all of our schemes and everything that we do on the operation side as well is making sure that the schemes talk not only to the residents within the building but also outside and that, that talks from everything from design in terms of how we create those connection points but also how we utilise the space in attracting the local community to come and use that space so, in the case of Bromley, we’ve got some space dedicated specifically for the local community to come and use, we’ve got a café that I have an ambition that it’s independently run so, you’re bringing in local operators, local produce etc and then we’re trying to work with the community in terms of areas of need. Bromley has got a rich cultural history with things like the theatre and everything like that so we’re looking at how can the development we’re proposing to do benefit all of those great assets both in terms of through our Section 106 contributions but also how do we bring again all of that activity back into the scheme as well so, I very much view our developments as an enhancement to the overall community, not just the site in which we’re looking at.
Susan Freeman
And what’s been the response from the community?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, so we had, which I was hugely proud of, we had more supporters than objectors which was a great achievement for us but you know I think with any type of development particularly in this day and age, there are always those that we won’t be able to cater for everyone’s needs so I’m realistic and acknowledge the fact that the development won’t be everybody’s taste in terms of design and use and everything else but I think when we look and stand back at the challenge that we have in the UK and not least in Bromley, there is a massive housing shortage and there is therefore a need for brown field locations to come forward from a development perspective and Bromley, again beautifully located, right on top of the train station, you’ve got access to the local amenity and preserves development going onto the green belt so, I think in the round it was you know people support it, they recognise the need and actually one of the things also that came out of some of the consultation was, there was a genuine concern from people of Bromley around the next generation’s ability to remain and stay within the community because there isn’t the capacity within the Borough for that housing so, I think by and large there were an acknowledgement that it was needed and it was a good designed development.
Susan Freeman
And have you got an element of affordable homes within the 350?
Katherine Russell
Yes so, our ambition across the board principally actually is to deliver as much affordable housing as we possibly can. In the case of Bromley it’s 10% and we will seek to increase that as and when we can, we are looking at, or have looked at infrastructure grants to increase that number as well but I think the difference again between us and our affordable housing proposition and housing proposition at large is we are not distinguishing between affordable housing and market rent housing other than the price so, you wouldn’t know that your neighbour necessarily is paying a discounted market rent, you’ll still have the same access to amenities that everybody else does, the same front door and the same fitout so, then I think that when we think about inclusion of people and society that’s a really important thing for us ensuring that the community at large integrates well.
Susan Freeman
And when do you plan to start work?
Katherine Russell
So we, well obviously we had the committee a couple of weeks ago so we’re now kind of heads down stepping into the next phase to bring it forward but there’s still a significant amount of work to get underway.
Susan Freeman
Okay but relatively soon?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, no, well yeah, we started the day after we came out of the committee so, yeah, ambition is to bring forward as soon as possible, yeah.
Susan Freeman
Yeah, okay, it all looks very exciting because this will be the first one presumably.
Katherine Russell
Indeed. Well, yes well that is the intention, we’ve got the other two in the background as well, I say in the background, one of them’s coming to the foreground very shortly so, yeah, I think the difference that we have with Bromley and Reading and West Ealing is West Ealing and Bromley both have Waitroses underneath them, whereas Reading is a lot more simple in terms of it’s a clearer site from that respect.
Susan Freeman
So, on the Reading site there’s an old warehouse site, I don’t know if it’s currently in use. So how, how do your plans for that site differ from the sites where you’ve got existing Waitrose stores, obviously easier because you don’t have to develop around an existing you know operational business.
Katherine Russell
So the plans in terms of end proposition don’t differ necessarily in principle but I suppose the ultimate delivery route in getting there is much simpler so, obviously we don’t have a trading store that we need to navigate around, it’s a much clearer and cleaner site to work with. So that’s probably the most fundamental difference between the two of them and therefore with Reading there is potential to deliver that in a much shorter timespan than the other two.
Susan Freeman
And will Reading be on the same sort of scale as the other two?
Katherine Russell
Yes so Reading proposes 200 new homes with again lots of open space that both the residents and the broader community can use. I mean there isn’t any other differences between the two other than I suppose the fact that Reading will not have a Waitrose underneath it.
Susan Freeman
And I mean looking at West Ealing which again is very well located, it’s just a few hundred metres from a Crossrail station. I know that it’s due to be decided by the Planning Inspector in a few months’ time so I don’t expect you to go into the ins and outs of this right now but broadly speaking, can you tell us a little bit about what you’re hoping to deliver in Ealing.
Katherine Russell
Yes most definitely. So 428 homes, again a beautifully refurbished Waitrose store with the state of the art proposition with a café that sort of brings the two uses together around a public courtyard, with lots of open space again and a podium for residents and the local community to congregate in, I mean when we talk about open space I think when we’ve been able to measure it, we’re talking around the size of about 23 tennis courts which is significant given the location of it, so increasing via diversity by around 75%, lots of solar panels, air source heat pumps but the real thing that I love about West Ealing is the innovation of how we’re looking to take energy that’s pumped out from the refrigeration of the Waitrose stores and recycle it back up for use in the residential apartments so, there are some really nice initiatives and technology advances that we’ve been able to bring to bear on West Ealing. Again, we’re looking to deliver 20% affordable housing on the scheme, again same principles apply to the proposition, no difference other than the proportion of rent that you’ll pay. But, and a beautifully, again, well located scheme right on top of the Elizabeth Line and I hope that that in turn enables the regeneration of that area.
Susan Freeman
And as a matter of interest the, the open space which is equivalent to 23 tennis courts, how is that used at the moment?
Katherine Russell
It’s not there at the moment. So, we build on top of the car park, we create open top gardens and podiums and creating a much better public realm space around the site as well. So a lot of it isn’t there, hence why the biodiversity and net gain increases so significantly.
Susan Freeman
Just looking forward, I mean these three sites are effectively the first phase. As you say, the portfolio is, is enormous and includes 34 John Lewis stores, 329 Waitrose stores, have you thought about how many sites you could eventually develop for housing?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, so our ambition is 10,000 homes overall, of which half we’re seeking to bring forward via our own existing estate and then the remainder of that we’ll be looking for third party acquisitions.
Susan Freeman
And are you looking at those acquisitions at the moment?
Katherine Russell
We are yep, yep, we’re looking at a couple of things also in parallel. I mean I think the interesting thing around this whole venture is when is started four, four and a half years ago, the market was in a very different place and commercial viability of our existing sites was in a very different place to what is now where we’ve got a lot more challenges but conversely with that shift in the market cycle, we’re trying to take advantage of that and think about you know where is there an opportunity to take advantage of supressed property values in certain locations and bring forward third party acquisitions so, I think the beauty of how we approach our core retail business where in a cycle the department store business is doing well or the way round, Waitrose is doing well and John Lewis isn’t, they kind of counterweight each other, the same way we’re thinking about our Build to Rent strategy as well, our existing estate portfolio will thrive in certain markets whereas the third party acquisition side of the market will enable us to turn our attention at different times.
Susan Freeman
And are you going to be looking just at London and the southeast or will you be venturing further afield?
Katherine Russell
No, we’ll look across the UK.
Susan Freeman
And we’ve recently had a change of Government and I just wondered what you thought in terms of how that changes the prospects for Build to Rent and is, I mean I know it’s early days but what are you hearing?
Katherine Russell
It is early days but I think the mood music thus far in terms of being pro brown field development is very encouraging and I think the desire and intent and ambition to bring forward housing as a key priority again is very much welcomed, I think the devil is going to be in the detail in terms of how they actually enable that to come forward in a less bureaucratic way but I think all the right words and all the right, the right landscape is definitely there for a much more positive step forward for both housing and Build to Rent, I think the beauty is that Build to Rent is starting to be recognised as an asset class in its own right which I think is testament to the hard work that the industry have been doing to try and get a level of understanding around what it is and what it delivers and why it’s different actually from the for sale market which, you know, there’s still quite a way to go but I think the, the tide is starting to turn for all that.
Susan Freeman
No, as I said it has taken a while and I suppose the expression ‘Build to Rent’ is not necessarily something that people would understand if they don’t know the market and I know a lot of people confuse Build to Rent with Buy to Let and there is a lot of education needed and I mean in terms of the planning system, are you supportive of changes? Do you think there is anything in particular that would make the development of housing easier?
Katherine Russell
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely in support of reform on the planning side. I think there needs to be more clarity and direction given to where brown field development should and can take place together with the scale and density that’s appropriate. I recognise the need to make sure that the local people that live in these areas voices can, they have a route to voice their concerns and an ability to influence but I do think that given the housing crisis challenge there is a need to depoliticise the process to a certain extent to enable it to have a clearer route through and enable greater certainty for developers and investors and to try and take away some of the blockers that are there.
Susan Freeman
So, in terms of timing, obviously you have ambitions to build 10,000 units. What timeframe are you, are you looking at for that?
Katherine Russell
Look, this is taking a lot longer than we had envisaged given the kind of the way the market has turned so I think it’s unfair to put a timescale. We’ve got as I say our first 1000 homes in various stages of planning, we’ve got avenues to pursue third party opportunities so I think that coupled with a landscape and pro-brown field development environment from the new Government sets a platform to enable us to move forward as quickly as we can. That said, there’s going to be challenges along the way, you know the Building Safety Act creates another hurdle for a number of us and there haven’t been a lot of people who have been through that process yet so, you know we will go as fast as we possibly can, we’ve got all the right ingredients to enable us to our side but we can’t control the macro-economic climate and anything else that the Government or others may, may wish to seek to change but we’re set to go.
Susan Freeman
I’m glad you mentioned the Building Safety Act because we’re doing a, a lot of work on that at the moment. Yeah, so you’ve got a lot, a lot on your, your plate. I was wondering how you manage to find time for your other roles because you’re on the Board of ULI UK, New West End Company, Dolphin Living, how do you manage to combine all those roles?
Katherine Russell
Yeah, and I’ve also got a passion for health and wellbeing as well which is another thing that I do on the side. Do you know what, I, I have a passion for all of those things and they’re all to be honest interconnected as well and I think if you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like a job, it just feels part and parcel of everything so it just fits into my every day, I don’t see, obviously John Lewis is my main core job but everything that you’ve just described that sits around it, they all interconnect so it’s all part and parcel of the same thing. I learn from those other organisations which in turn enable me to do my job at John Lewis a lot better.
Susan Freeman
And you somehow manage to find time for two young children as well.
Katherine Russell
Indeed, yes, so two girls who, yeah, absolutely adore but I’ve got a great support network behind me and I think it’s a, I’m hoping that I am demonstrating to them what a good female role model and mum and can be.
Susan Freeman
I think you certainly are so, we’ll end it there Katherine, that’s amazing and we will be watching how things progress.
Katherine Russell
Brilliant. Thanks Susan.
Susan Freeman
Thank you.
Thank you so much Katherine for telling us about your exciting vision for building the John Lewis brand in the Build to Rent rental sector. We will watch this space with great interest.
So that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed today’s conversation. Please join us for the next PropertyShe podcast interview coming very soon.
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