Alan Cherry - housebuilding champion remembered

By Rupert Bates - Show House magazine

The industry has paid tribute to Alan Cherry, the founder and chairman of Countryside Properties and hailed as “the most significant housebuilder of his generation.”
Cherry, who founded Countryside in 1958, died last month from cancer, aged 76.
It is a long way from the sprawl of Dagenham and other Essex environs where Cherry
grew up, leaving school at 15, to the helm of one of Britain’s most innovative and admired housebuilders, a company that created an enviable reputation for sustainable communities and urban regeneration.
Cherry leaves his wife Fay and two sons Graham and Richard, who have both been part of the Countryside senior management team for many years. Graham Cherry, Countryside’s chief executive, said: “My father’s pioneering vision has showed the way for many and in the future we will see a lot of what Alan Cherry championed become the accepted standard for UK housebuilding. His legacy is already there on site in so many places and Countryside Properties will continue to create sustainable communities in the way that my father has shown us.”
Michael Hanson, Showhouse financial editor and one of the most respected property journalists in the UK, said: “Alan Cherry was the most significant housebuilder of his generation. Not only because of his commitment to good design but also because of his genuine belief in social integration in all Countryside’s developments over the years. In everything he did he was ahead of his rivals, not only in winning ten Building for Life awards, but also in being the first to win the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize for a housing development with Accordia at Cambridge.”
“Alan also gave a lot of his time and energy to public duties, being the only housebuilder on the Government’s Urban Task Force, as well as the only one on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into Housing in the 1980s. He was also the only housebuilder to write a chairman’s blog, published regularly on the company’s website, which was full of perceptive insights into the achievements and failings of an increasingly embattled housing industry.”
Some of Countryside’s greatest developments deserve a seat in any pantheon of new homes. Greenwich Millenium Village in London, Great Notley Garden Village, Braintree and St Mary’s Island, Chatham, are all part of his rich legacy. In 2005 Countryside Properties was crowned What House? Awards Housebuilder of the Year.
Tony Pidgley, chairman of the Berkeley Group, said: “Alan was, first and foremost, a true gentleman, who always had time for you and was an inspiration to everyone he met. His contribution to the industry, and to those who were lucky enough to know him, cannot be adequately expressed in words. I. and many others, have a great deal to thank him for, and I feel privileged to have known him. Alan was an example to us all. A great man and the industry will miss him hugely.”
Nick Raynsford, the former Housing minister, worked closely with Cherry on Greenwich Millennium Village. “Alan never lost his common touch and his sympathy for those less fortunate than himself. While some housebuilders stubbornly resisted demands to mix affordable and social homes with those for market sale, Alan showed that mixed income developments could work very successfully and took great pride in the fact that at Greenwich Millennium Village housing for rent and for sale is indistinguishable,” said Raynsford.

Cherry was awarded an MBE in 1984 and a CBE in 2003 for services to housing and regeneration. In 1991 he was elected an Honorary Member of The Royal Town Planning Institute.

He held a large number of outside directorships that focused his genuine wish and commitment to assist with regeneration and development activity wherever he could. Widely respected throughout the development industry he was a past national president of The Home Builders Federation and chairman of the New Homes Marketing Board.

Before establishing Countryside Properties, Cherry was a founder partner and managing director of estate agency Bairstow Eves.

In 1972 he floated Countryside Properties and it remained a quoted company until, with sons Graham and Richard, he completed a management buyout in 2005.
Bob Barlow, of the Bob Barlow Consultancy, said: “What a great loss he is. I knew Alan well and worked with him on the Royal Docks Housing group, Church Langley and indirectly on several other multi-partner projects. He was an incredibly impressive leader who knew the business inside out and had a real passion for it. I always found Alan immensely likeable and very charming with those piercing eyes and that 100 kilowatt smile. A great man.”

A memorial service for Alan Cherry is to be held at Chelmsford Cathedral on March 18th at 2.30pm. Donations in Alan’s memory can be made to Saint Francis Hospice via www.justgiving.com/alancherry

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