Property Focus: The Interview – Stephen Worsnip
IN our series of interviews with top professionals from across the property sector, TheBusinessDesk catches up with Stephen Worsnip, director at Warrington Martin, chartered surveyor and construction consultancy, based in Didsbury.
What are your views of the current state of the commercial property and property development markets?
I would anticipate the commercial property and property development markets continuing to be slow for a number of months.
We’ve found that lack of bank finance continues to be a restraint, although there are signs of improvement in the overall economic climate.
What key challenges and pieces of legislation do you think will most affect your sector over the coming months?
A reduction in public sector expenditure seems to be inevitable and will have a negative impact on the construction industry.
In the wider economy, there will also be a degree of uncertainty in the run up to a general election.
Why do you think the North West is a good place to do business?
For me, it’s a combination of a vibrant Manchester city centre, which is widely recognised as having made great strides over the last 10 to 15 years, and the wider North West area being a great place to live.
What is your favourite building in the North West and why?
Nick Everton House in Plymouth Grove – it was our largest project management and quantity surveying appointment to date.
If you could improve anything in the region, what would it be?
The weather. I had ten years working in the South East and used the barbecue far more regularly.
What was your first job and how did you enter your current line of work?
I’ve been with Warrington Martin man and boy. Before university I had part-time jobs wheeling deliveries to hospital wards (with the benefit of meeting plenty of nurses!) and cutting lawns and hedges for Trafford Council.
I began a quantity surveying degree course at Salford University, having failed to obtain A level grades sufficient to study Biology or Zoology.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
There is a reward for everybody working in the development and construction sector in seeing the creation of a new building from nothing.
As we work for a wide variety of businesses, including owner occupiers and property developers, the sheer variety of the projects and personalities I deal with is rewarding in itself.
What barriers have you faced during your career and how have you overcome them?
The barriers have primarily been the vagaries of the property and construction industry climate impacting on the practice. Warrington Martin was established in 1972 and I joined a few years after so I have battled, and won through, a few recessions.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Mark McCormack’s book , “What they can’t teach you at Harvard Business School”, which I read many years ago, contains some very good advice on business acumen.
From the point of view of learning from experience, the early 1990s recession taught me to trust my instincts about people.
And the worst?
Being told to buy a Betamax video recorder…
