John Stewart
It is with huge sadness that I write to inform you that our much loved and respected former colleague John Stewart passed away earlier today, at the age of 69, after a long illness which he fought courageously over many years.
John was a respected and thoughtful contributor to the housing debate for almost 40 years and an invaluable member of the HBF team as long-serving Director of Economic Affairs.
His passion for the industry and discussing housing issues was always on display, even as his illness advanced. John always confronted his illness with his characteristic mix of pragmatism and quiet courage, continuing to work for more than a decade after his initial diagnosis and through innumerable rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments.
John joined HBF in 2003 but had worked in the industry, including as a consultant for HBF and others, for more than a decade before that including spending time as divisional Sales and Marketing Director for Wates Built Homes. He retired from HBF in 2016.
Before moving from his native New Zealand to the UK in 1979, John had graduated from the University of Auckland with a degree in English. He would add to this after migrating, securing an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck College in London. He and his wife, Maureen laid down roots in Tunbridge Wells, followed by three children, Ellie, Elise and Chris. Following his wife’s own battle with cancer, John was widowed when their children were still young. A matter of months after the death of his wife, John himself received a cancer diagnosis for which he undertook multiple and various treatments over some 15 years. During the later stages of John’s ill health, he was cared for at home by his long-term partner, Angela Gill.
John was always a very keen – and adventurous – traveller, with an uncanny knack of visiting interesting places before strife, discord or natural disasters struck, such as Syria in 2010 and Iran in 2011. He had a particular love of Iranian culture, having once lived there with his wife and admiring the friendliness of the Iranian people and the country’s many artistic and architectural splendours. He continued to attend lectures about Iran at the British Museum after his last visit to the country.
John and I shared a keen interest in rock music and rock guitarists and he took great pride in his son Chris’ foray into the world of bands, recording and live music performance.
John’s role at HBF saw him lead on many significant industry and policy developments over the course of what was often a tumultuous period for the sector. This included devising and managing several house builder surveys on both sentiment and sales activity, some of which continue to report more than 25 years after their launch. He represented the industry’s views and helped oversee the introduction of the Customer Satisfaction Survey, the establishment of the Consumer Code for Homebuilders and influenced the creation of housing supply initiatives such as HomeBuy Direct, Kickstart, NewBuy and Help to Buy. His patience and skill was most evident during the sometimes difficult conception of the NewBuy initiative in 2012.
John started writing for Housebuilder magazine in 1995 and was a regular contributor until his retirement, writing the monthly John Stewart’s Viewpoint. He also launched Housing Market Report in 1992 which he edited until 2012.
In 2002, while working as a consultant for HBF, John wrote Building a Crisis, on the creation and consequences of an extended period of housing undersupply in England. Pre-dating the Government’s own Barker Review of Housing Supply, it was one of the first publications to spell out both the reasons for, and likely impact of, building too few homes. The report warned that ‘current house building trends will produce 1.5 million fewer dwellings than are likely to be needed over the next 20 years…’ This proved remarkably prophetic albeit the extent of the shortage accelerated in its growth during the financial crisis. The report which pre-dated the Barker Review and any serious interest from politicians in increasing the supply of new homes, set out several of the causes for this undersupply, citing the planning system and the tight restrictions on development land imposed by local authorities.
‘A decade from now, and probably much sooner, Britain will see a mirror image of the current rail and health service crises. Repairing the housing crisis, built up over more than two decades, will take many years, and probably several decades. The longer it is ignored, the greater the economic and social damage, and the longer it will take to repair. But unlike health, education or public transport, an increase in private house building would not require additional public expenditure. Indeed, it would generate a substantial increase in public revenue.’
(John Stewart, ‘Building a Crisis’, June 2002)
Several of us were fortunate in being able to visit John and Angela over the past few weeks where despite his advancing illness he continued to display a keen interest in the events of the day. Put simply John was one of the most remarkable people I have ever had the pleasure to know and work with; he was a thoroughly decent and polite man who always acted with the highest professional integrity. John was the most loyal of friends and will be very much missed by all those he came to know through his work in the industry and for HBF.
Naturally our thoughts at this very sad time are with Angela, his children and all his family and friends and I am sure you will all join me in sending condolences to them all.
Stewart
(Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman)