Profile - David Richardson: Keeping pace with developments in a world on constant change

Construction came to a halt almost overnight as banks withdrew development funding for key projects across the region.

"It's the worst it's ever been for commercial property because people can't get property finance so we haven't seen any new developments starting.

"I think we're probably seeing signs that we're scooting along the bottom at the moment but I would suspect it'll be some time before we do see anything new happening.

"This is the fourth recession I've lived through and you just have to get on with it. It feels different this time because it is much sharper, much steeper down."

Mr Richardson, 65, acts a consultant at chartered surveyors and property consultants Sanderson Weatherall, in Leeds, after stepping down as the head of the northern offices in Leeds and Manchester several years ago.

He is also chairman of NHS Leeds Community Healthcare, the service provider arm of NHS Leeds.

While the recession brought an end to the majority of new developments, it also brought about new opportunities for Mr Richardson who is frequently appointed as an arbitrator and independent expert to determine rent reviews and other property disputes.

He also appears as an expert witness in the High Court and other tribunals, including planning inquiries and arbitrations.

He says: "You are always frustrated with the lack of activity but I think the residential side of the market is picking up. I look after odd bits of land for trusts who own sites on the outside of Leeds, and we're now seeing housebuilders starting to want to activate options to take sites.

"Sanderson Weatherall is lucky in that it has a very broad base compared with some of the firms in Leeds, and I'm quite busy at the moment."

In spite of this, he says, it will still take a while for the property market to pick up again.

"I think it's difficult to feel excitedly positive about the outlook. I think we have turned a corner; perhaps there are two corners, and I'm not sure we've turned the second yet.

"The recession has been so serious that it'll take longer than just a couple of good bits of news to get us out and re-establish confidence."

One of the most high-profile casualties of the recession was the iconic skyscraper Lumiere – two glass towers designed to be the tallest building in Leeds. The development was mothballed last year and now the site stands empty.

Earlier this month, councillors refused planning permission for changes drawn up to make the project more viable, but approval for the original 54-storey and 32-storey scheme still exists.

So does Mr Richardson believe it will eventually come to fruition?

He pauses.

"It's difficult to imagine it will at the moment. Not in that format any way. If you go back to the previous recession, there was a plan then to build a big scheme on the Queen's Hall site – Criterion Place – and it's still a car park.

"It's about timing. If you don't get the timing right then whatever it is you're planning to build becomes a dead duck.

"You can't really build something which has failed because it will be seen as a failure. Therefore, you have to build something different on the site. It won't be Lumiere and it won't be the tallest building in Leeds either."

Which is a shame, because he says striking buildings are what is missing from Leeds.

"Leeds needs some good, strong, attractive, statement buildings. That's one of the disadvantages it has compared with some of the other cities in the UK."

Mr Richardson has worked at Sanderson Weatherall since 1965 when it was called Hollis & Webb. The firm has been through a number of name changes over the years, and Mr Richardson has been involved in some of the city's most significant development projects.

He was the lead adviser to British Waterways and the Royal Armouries in the master planning and disposal of Clarence Dock to Crosby Homes.

"Nobody knew where Clarence Dock was. I was seen as someone who could act as the catalyst for the stakeholders to get together and sort it out. That's one thing I am pleased about. It was good to get it going."

Clarence Dock is going through a difficult patch as many of the retail units have closed and other businesses are struggling to attract people to the area.

Mr Richardson adds: "It's not easy in this market because there are retail units that aren't occupied. I don't think the big winter freeze and the big financial freeze are doing it any good.

"When the big retail schemes, Trinity Leeds and the Eastgate Quarter, are completed, it will move the focus in Clarence Dock's direction and I think it'll make a big difference to that area."

Mr Richardson says he fell into becoming a chartered surveyor, following in his father's footsteps.

He grew up in Roundhay, in Leeds, with his parents and two sisters and still lives in his childhood home after buying it from his parents.

He attended Shrewsbury School and was in the same class as Michael Palin.

"My memory of him is that we'd all wear the same kind

of football sweaters and he'd have a different one. Not because he always wanted to be different, but just because he was.

"I have no memory of him standing out as a real character or good at drama."

Mr Richardson left school in 1962 at the age of 18 and worked for a firm in Manchester before moving to Hollis and Webb where his father also worked.

"My father's office in the late Fifties had an open fire. He used to put a dust-sheet over his desk because there was so much muck and filth about.

"The world's changed a lot. There was no fax, we used to use telex, a machine with which you used to send messages between machines, which came out on rolls of paper.

"I can remember someone explaining faxes to me and thinking 'that doesn't sound real' and within two years it was being used widely.

"Every single surveyor would have had a secretary in those days because everything took so long."

In 1972, he became a partner in the firm and grew the Leeds office from 30 to 120 staff. Sanderson Weatherall, which also has offices in London, Newcastle and Teesside, employs about 300 staff altogether.

"The industry has certainly changed but it's changed for the better because it's more efficient, more transparent," he says.

"The quality of buildings has improved. Buildings in the sixties and seventies were pretty horrible. They were poor quality, the materials were cheap, aesthetically nobody was prepared to invest enough money so the architecture was unattractive."

Although Mr Richardson says he doesn't have a favourite building in Leeds, there is one development which he says proved him wrong.

He tried to persuade the architects to remove the striking "point" at the corner of Princes Exchange, near the train station. "I thought it would make it difficult to occupy the offices," he says. "As it happened, DLA Piper took a big chunk of

the building anyway and that's been very successful. I'm delighted."

Mr Richardson, who is married to Jill and has three children and four grandchildren, says he continues to enjoy what he does but he realises there will come a point where he has to stop.

"You can't go on forever. I only want to do it if I'm not a nuisance. The moment it becomes apparent that I'm in the way I shall disappear fast. There's nothing worse than hanging around for too long."

DAVID RICHARDSON

Title: Chartered surveyor

Date of birth: June 8, 1944

Education: Shrewsbury School, Shrewsbury

First job: Office boy at an architects' office

Favourite song: La Bohme opera

Car driven: C-Class Mercedes

Favourite film: The Guns of Navarone

Favourite holiday destination: New Zealand

Last book read: Michael Palin Diaries, by Michael Palin

What I am most proud of: My family