Sep 10, 2026
Take the Escape the 9-5 Scorecard: https://bit.ly/EscapeThe9-5Now
£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