Last updated at 11:21, Friday, 03 April 2009

After 24 years studiously avoiding it, Martyn Boak is suddenly the man in the spotlight.

Martyn Boak

As the brains behind two of Cumbria’s biggest building projects, the unassuming lad from Morton in Carlisle has cast himself in a significant role in the economic renaissance of the county.

His company, Northern Developments, will design and build the first housing estate in Britain to be constructed to level four of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes.

The development will be built on former stables at Carlisle Racecourse.

The scheme, known as The Paddock, will feature 42 luxury homes boasting the latest energy-saving technology.

Meanwhile, the Northern Developments team are also applying the final brush strokes to a £32m plan to create a business park ‘gateway’ at Lillyhall, near Workington.

The ambition of the plans demonstrate Mr Boak’s unswerving faith in his home county, but, he insists, there is nowhere else he would rather be investing his time, and his money.

“I could have taken these developments anywhere in the country in theory, but for me Cumbria was the only option,” the 45-year-old said.

“We have built residential and industrial developments in the north east and developments in Manchester, but for me, nothing beats the feeling of driving up the M6 and back to Cumbria.

“It’s a fantastic place to live; it’s just that we don’t always fight our corner and shout loud enough.

“There are some fantastic opportunities in Cumbria at the moment: Carlisle Renaissance, the University of Cumbria, Britain’s Energy Coast in west Cumbria and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s programme there.

“We are not immune from the recession, but I do believe we are better protected than some other parts of the country.

“We have so much to be positive about.”

The Carlisle Racecourse development has been four years in the planning, during which time the company’s ambition for the scheme grew as quickly as the housing market bubble, only for prices to crash as the blueprint emerged into the daylight.

In typically optimistic fashion, though, Mr Boak believes the slowdown will actually help sell houses on The Paddock.

The logic is that the freeze on housebuilding forced by the credit crunch and the block on people moving imposed by financial uncertainty and the banks’ failure to lend will build up demand.

When the dam breaks, developments like The Paddock will benefit from newly-confident homebuyers keen to move and with an eye on the kind of luxury flourishes the racecourse estate can provide.

“The timing for building of The Paddock will be led by the timing of the recovery in the housing market,”said Mr Boak.

“In planning for the upturn in the demand for homes, we have to make sure that our development is ready and complete at the moment when buyers’ confidence returns so that we can meet their needs without delay.”

He added: “At the end of the day [the racecourse] is a unique site; this kind of site is not available on the edge of Aintree or York.

“And, because it’s so unique, it demands a unique development.”

So unique, in fact, it will be built to a level of environmental-sustainability never seen before in Britain, and a full four years before the Government demands every home be built this way.

“We are very proud to be pushing this forward,” he added.

“It’s normally said in business that if you drop a pebble in a pool in London, five years later the ripple comes to Cumbria.

“This time we are dropping the pebble in Cumbria, turning everything on its head.”

The Lillyhall development, which will feature a hotel, industrial and office space and a filling station, is just as ambitious.

“There are so many opportunities with the Energy Coast agenda in west Cumbria,” said Mr Boak.

“The area is going to become a world centre of energy skills.

“My dream will be in 10 years’ time to see people born in west Cumbria, trained at the university campus and go on to work for businesses grown on our development.

“When you drive along the A66 or the A595, you see the best of Cumbria, with the rolling fells and beautiful countryside, then you get to Workington and realise you are in industrial Cumbria, I want our Lillyhall development to be the gateway to that.”

It was in the dark winter of the last recession when Mr Boak launched himself into the world of business.

He said: “Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit told us to buy a bike and pedal it, so I did.

“We were in a recession when we launched, though it was different to this time, this recession is unique.

“It was downturn though, so I have experience of trading through that.”

The firm steadily grew, carving a niche for itself in the health and education sector.

That led to its most prestigious job to date: designing and building the headquarters of world rally team M-Sport at Dovenby Hall, near Cockermouth, as well as the design and build of Jaguar’s UK HQ in Milton Keynes.

Then came a decision to pull out of the contracting game and concentrate solely on the design and build sector: a move that meant downsizing the company’s staff, but not its ambitions.

It’s a step that appears to be paying off and is a demonstration of the kind of sure-footed decision making that will help pull the county through the current recession.

“I’m not being complacent or misunderstanding the current situation, it’s tough,” said Mr Boak.

“But I do think we are all being a bit over-negative.

“You can’t turn the pages of a newspaper at the moment without seeing something negative about the economy, I think people are getting downtrodden by it now.

“You have to look for something on the horizon to be optimistic about. We will turn the corner eventually, we always do.

“Cumbria has a healthy proportion of organically-grown entrepreneurial businesses.

“Companies like Eddie Stobart, Lakeland and M-Sport: all fantastic home-grown businesses and, in an economy like this, not being reliant on international employers is a good thing.

“Entrepreneurs tend to work that bit harder and sweat that much more to get things done and that’s what will get us through this.”

First published at 05:21, Friday, 03 April 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk