A WEALTHY LIFE PODCAST

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£550 a month to house someone, or £4,500 a month to put them in a hostel. Guess which one we keep choosing. I asked Rob Stewart what he would say to Andy Burnham if he had three things and a room to say them in. He gave me one thing with ten points in it, called it creative accounting, and talked me through the first three anyway: skills, the high street, and incentives. What I liked is that he starts by agreeing. Fix housing, fix the high street, fix trade skills, he thinks that diagnosis is right and says so. Where he parts company is the route: he wants the rulebook ripped up, real partnership between the state and the private sector instead of one side doing it alone. We get into why small firms stopped taking apprentices, what he would do with the empty Argos in the middle of Chester, and the thirteen flats in Ellesmere Port where a £50,000 grant paid for itself in about three years. I brought my own soapbox too. A radical overhaul of education, because I don’t think three years and a pile of fees prepares anyone for the world they graduate into. Pedestrianised high streets, because I’ve seen what that does to a town in Slovakia. And responsibility, enough and contribution, which is where I always end up. Rob Stewart is an ex-RAF fighter pilot turned property developer, with around fifteen years in brownfield regeneration, converting commercial buildings into homes across the Midlands and the North. He self-manages a portfolio spanning HMOs, mixed-use, commercial and residential property, ran a scaffolding company with twenty scaffolders on the books, and wrote the book Property Unicorns. He’s put together his own ten-point manifesto for fixing housing, skills and the high street, and makes the public case for the state investing alongside private landlords rather than around them. EXPECT TO LEARN: – Why £4,500 a month of emergency hostel accommodation is the alternative nobody costs against £550 a month of housing benefit – Why small firms quietly stopped taking apprentices, and the change Rob would make to bring them back – What Rob would do with a twenty thousand square foot empty Argos in the middle of Chester, and what an anchor lease does to a high street – The missing generation of housing for people leaving home for the first time, and why we are not actually short of buildings – How a £50,000 council grant on thirteen flats in Ellesmere Port paid itself back in roughly three years – Why Rob thinks it is easier to vilify a landlord with a face than a fund without one, and the ONS figures behind it – The reason Vicki got into property in the first place, and what being housed made possible – Why raising wages can end in fewer jobs, and what a 20mph speed limit has to do with the economy – Rob’s filter for every decision he makes: am I being part of the problem or part of the solution TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 The big political question: three things for the next Prime Minister 01:16 Housing as a genuine cross-party priority 01:46 Vicki on being housed when her marriage broke up 04:06 Ripping up the left and right rulebook 06:58 Why the apprenticeship system isn’t fit for purpose 08:55 AI, universities and three years you don’t get back 10:34 Making the state the employer of record 12:22 The young people we’re letting fall through the cracks 13:59 The high street, and why business rates are tinkering 14:58 Chestification, and the empty Argos in the middle of Chester 17:45 The missing generation of housing 19:24 Who actually ends up paying for all of this 22:19 Incentives, and the third thing Rob would say 23:31 Ellesmere Port: a £50,000 grant, and £550 versus £4,500 a month 26:15 Why it’s easier to vilify a face than a fund 27:44 A welfare check, and what one tenant actually asked for 32:04 Responsibility, enough and contribution 37:19 Profit, risk and the law of fair exchange 45:57 Section 24, ten years on 46:54 The 20mph speed limit as a metaphor for the economy [NOTE FOR DYLAN: these come from the raw transcript markers, please sanity-check against the final edit before publishing — cuts will shift them. First stamp must stay at 00:00 for YouTube auto-chapters.] FOLLOW THE GUEST ROB STEWART: Website: https://www.robstewartglobal.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robstewartglobal/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robstewartproperty FOLLOW THE HOST VICKI WUSCHE: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickiwusche/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VickiWusche Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vicki_wusche/ Join the Wealthy Life Community: https://bit.ly/Join-WLC LISTEN TO A WEALTHY LIFE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/VickiWusche Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/a-wealthy-life/id1617293196 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13lVRTAioD5mR4XUiylAk8 #HousingPolicy #Apprenticeships #PropertyInvesting #UKEconomy #AWealthyLife