Non Executive Director & Chair and research analyst, working with lenders, trade bodies and governments on UK housing policy, finance & markets
London
Joined May 2011
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UK Housing Review 2026. We are launching the latest review at the House of Lords today giving up to date comment and statistics on housing in the UK and its four constituent countries. Available online from later this afternoon at lnkd.in/e6fwSukv
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Great review of Titan today by Chris Dodds on the Hear the Boat Sing website heartheboatsing.com/2024/03/…
@unbounders @SandyNairne
Peter Williams retweeted
Have you heard of Lord Desborough?
LD or William Grenfell was an unlikely oarsman. He’d been a very fast runner at school but only started rowing at Oxford University. Within 18 months he found himself on the start line for the 1877 Boat Race 🧵
@SandyNairne @ProfPWilliams
Peter Williams retweeted
To find out more about Lord Desborough, his biography 'Titan of the Thames' is available NOW from your favourite bookshop...
unbound.com/books/titan
@SandyNairne @ProfPWilliams
Peter Williams retweeted
Once appointed as President of the Central Association of Volunteer Training Corps, he was determined that the government should recognise how much useful work could be done to support the war effort. Here he is in a news photo supervising volunteer efforts at Didcot in 1917.
Peter Williams retweeted
So, Willy, now Lord Desborough, pitched for London to be host city. Despite many diplomatic tensions, the building of a modern stadium at White City and setting internationally agreed rules contributed to a hugely successful London Olympics – a triumph for Desborough.
Peter Williams retweeted
He won the Amateur Championship three times, and helped set up the Thames Punting Club. For one commentator his punting gave “an unforgettable impression of superb movement and power, of perfect balance and rhythm … an exhibition of human strength coordinated.”
Jeremy Hunt pulls £200mn from councils after clawing back house sale funds ft.com/content/79d479fe-7ab1… via @ft This is madness and it highlights the extent to which the barrel has been scraped
His Act shrank the current 35 day range to a more modest few days. Seemingly the issue is getting different churches and others to agree but has anyone tried recently?
Desborough’s fight to fix the date is detailed in a new biography “Titan of the Thames”. The Archbishop of Canterbury has supported the change (in 2016) suggesting it would be in place within 10 years. Time is running out!
Want an Easter tweet? This year its 31st March. Lord Desborough fought with steely determination to get a fixed date and succeeded with the Easter Act, 1928. But no government has put in place a commencement order. It remains the oldest piece of legislation still on the shelf!
Hands up who knows the name of their parliamentary constituency sussexbylines.co.uk/politics…
Shocked to learn of the death of Lord Bob Kerslake - a huge loss to housing and much more. He was one of that ever rarer breed who valued research and knowledge and used it to great effect.
Pleased to see this timely CBRE review; for a more in depth review see Ken Gibb's piece on the PRS in the UK in the 2023 UK Housing Review cih.org/bookshop/uk-housing-…