Nigel Hugill: the man building houses for the work-from-home revolution
‘Everything in front of you didn’t exist 18 months ago.” Nigel Hugill is standing in front of a playground, gesturing past the swings and climbing frame to the park and homes behind.
It’s a sunny spring day in Houlton, just outside Rugby in Warwickshire, and residents of a large new housing development are making the most of the weather, taking their children to the playground and eating lunch at the cafe.
About 1,000 homes have already been built on the 1,200-acre site, as well as a primary and secondary school, with a further 5,000 houses to be added by the time the development is completed, in 15 years’ time.
Urban&Civic – the company Hugill co-founded with Robin Butler in 2009 and which he leads – is the “master developer” of this project and 13 others across England. That means it takes responsibility for the site from conception and planning to construction by housebuilders and completion.
Hugill set up Urban&Civic with the “objective of building outside the M25, but within 100 miles of London” in areas with the biggest population growth, and therefore greatest housing demand. The company sees these large developments as key to solving the housing crisis, at a time when the government is pushing its levelling-up agenda.
Age 64
Family Married with four children; Hugill and his wife met as teenagers.
Education Teesdale school in County Durham; politics degree at Christ Church, Oxford; master’s at the London School of Economics in labour law and labour economics.
Pay £1.3m in pay and bonuses in 2020-21, the final year before Urban&Civic was bought by the Wellcome Trust; he says his pay remains at a similar level.
Last holiday Two recent ski trips to Val d’Isère, where he has a property.
Best advice he has been given? “A great
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