Local people, local capital and local economy - the Preston model

I fell into this business by accident knowing little of local economies and nothing about estate agency when I joined Healey & Baker. My father, who'd worked in the Indian Army / British Army and the Colonial Office / Foreign Office, was not convinced that it was a suitable occupation. So, when recently turning to family history research, in common with many grumpy old men, I was shocked to learn that I actually come from a long line of 'auctioneers & estate agents'. My maternal great grandfather traded as Osenton & Fisher of 24 Jermyn Street, W1. His brother was perhaps the most distinguished in founding Chas Osenton & Co in 1898 with branches in Old Jewry EC2, Guildford, Dorking, Leatherhead, Epsom, Ashtead, etc. He eventually became President of the Chartered Auctioneer's and Estate Agents' Institute (subsumed into the RICS) and noted, in his 1924 presidential address, that their vocation suffered from "a plethora of ill-defined designations; 'agents', 'surveyors', 'auctioneers' and so on". I doubt he'd find today's ill-defined designations much improved.

?Yet what was so interesting about Charles Osenton's provincial business, back in the early 1900s, was how strong his commercial client base was with a long list of national investment, retail and industrial companies. Such, for example, included House of Fraser department store valuations even as late as 1958. Clearly it was not the London centric business that I first found with most commercial property work being undertaken by a handful of West End firms. And those clients' HQs were more widely distributed across the UK with some in towns that I don't believe have any commercial floorspace today.

?That reminded me of Harry Hyams of Oldham Estates, the developer of Centre Point and the "living legend of the property world", as Peter Bill described him. Aged 31, Hyams bought the Oldham Estates company at the Oldham Stock Exchange, back when we had provincial stock exchanges raising capital for local economic growth – 22 regional exchanges in 1914 with 11 still operating back in 1970. The prosperity of local economies is fundamental to the 'Levelling Up' agenda and perhaps the 'Preston Model' of incorporating social value in procurement models deserves more attention. Preston City Council found that only 39% of local public expenditure was being spent in Lancashire and their 'community wealth building' approach looks to retain more in the local economy.

?Taking the approach that neither the traditional city growth format based on big infrastructure projects nor the tax-and-spend redistribution works for many places, the community wealth building model is a co-operative and mutually supportive system of local residents, credit unions, public pensions and companies. There is the danger of municipal socialism ineptness but, with changes to local government financing, it might be a useful approach to keeping more of what is locally generated and judging procurement on the basis of the best value rather than the lowest price.

?The Preston Model | CLES

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