00:00Hi Mike, Property Personality of the Year 2024. Congratulations again. So Mike, you've
00:17seen Cardiff and South Wales more generally change a huge amount over the last 30 or so
00:25years. So what would be the highlights of the way things have changed in that period of time?
00:31Well I think really the transformation in property terms. It's a long period of time
00:35unfortunately for Peter to work through, but it being real change from the dark days of the 80s
00:43when we had recession, factory closures, coal closures. The 90s then was a period of real
00:49regeneration and money, serious money going into things like Cardiff Bay, WDA programs which were
00:57creating growth in the valleys. And that's sort of continued on through. Different times now with
01:03devolution and how things work in terms of delivery of this change. But it is ongoing and it's a
01:11different world to certainly when I started working here, which was a few years ago now.
01:16Just to remind us, when did you start at Cook & Arkwright?
01:20I started at Cook & Arkwright in the early 80s as a novice and as I say worked my way through.
01:26So it's been a long period, but a really, really interesting time to be in Wales.
01:32Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you mentioned Cardiff Bay and behind you is a rather large image of Cardiff.
01:38So can you just briefly say what that area was like maybe 35 years ago?
01:46Yeah, well when I first got involved in Cardiff Bay, literally at the outset we acquired the first
01:53offices Cardiff Bay Development Corporation after they were designated. I'd started my working life
01:58in a new town so I kind of knew somehow how these things work with an urban development corporation.
02:04So it was a really active time for us on a lot of fronts from doing a lot of the contribution to
02:11development planning, managing properties, acquiring an awful lot of property and then
02:16disposing and seeing it through. So for us as a business and for many other businesses in Cardiff
02:21it was a really interesting time. But this place was totally different. When I first went there
02:27it was dereliction, couldn't hardly get to the waterfront. The buildings which were there were
02:32very few and in a very poor state and it's been transformational. I mean this is it now,
02:39this is pre-date Cardiff Bay but all of this stuff here all the way down the waterfront
02:44and on through here and beyond here is all what's happened in that period from 1987 through to 2001.
02:53So in terms of an impact it was a massive impact I think not only on Cardiff but it changed the
02:58image of South Wales and Wales that people, investors started looking at South Wales and
03:04realising that oh Cardiff Bay's happening that's a big thing as in the WDA programmes and the M4
03:10being extended. All that stuff really did change people's perception of South Wales from being
03:16coal and steel largely to where it is now which is a much more modern diverse economy. So
03:23this is a great time in my life. Yeah and so where's it all heading next then? What's next
03:30for Cardiff and South Wales would you say? I think we're in a challenging time but then the UK isn't
03:35a challenging time, we've just been through a quite complex political time. I think Wales has
03:41always had to punch above its weight because you know our demographics are challenging at times,
03:48the geography is great in some ways but challenged in other ways for economic activity.
03:53So I think we've got to you know really pull public private resources together as best we
04:00can and I think we can do we can do really well. We've got great material here but you know it is
04:07a challenging position and we've always had to run punch above our weight within the UK
04:13because we're very blessed with the end of an electrified line into London and a motorway into
04:18London. So we've got to kind of use that but equally deal with the challenges now of IT and
04:23technological change. You don't need to take the train to London so often. So I think there's a
04:29lot of people I know live and work out here who actually would have worked in London before but
04:35times have changed so they can have a good lifestyle out here. So I think there's a lot
04:39we can go for but we've got to we've got to keep our act together.
