At PeopleDem property we believe in celebrating our community by spotlighting black excellence in property. Today we are celebrating Ransford Stewart.
Ransford is a retired planner whose incredible career spanned four decades. He previously served as a local authority Chief Officer and was a director of his own planning and management consultancy. Throughout his career, he worked with 16 councils and a National Park across London, the South and the Midlands. He also worked with three Quangos and two of the Big Four management consultancies on nationwide projects within the built environment sector. Ransford is a former Chair of the BAME Planners Network and a Council Member of Diversitas, the Black Construction Professionals Engagement Group of the Construction Industry Council. He was also a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Chartered Management Institute, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Ransford grew up in Birmingham during the 1960s, a period when large-scale slum clearances were taking place across the city. Reflecting on his childhood in an interview, he recalled: “I grew up in quite a large vibrant West Indian community in South Birmingham which ended up being dispersed as a result of so-called slum clearances. I remember they were having a public inquiry in advance of it; I would have been probably about 12, and my dad had all these papers out, and just reading it through it with him, it sounded fascinating. Years later, after we’d lost our house, like many others, I came back and looked at a lot of those papers. We knew our house wasn’t a slum, we lived in it, but what was clear is that officially it wasn’t a slum either, it was just added on lands. They didn’t need to bulldoze it and the rank unfairness of that sort of thing hit home. I think that all kind of came together, and guided me towards this.”
Although Ransford found the pace and scale of change inspiring, the impact on his family and the diverse community in which he grew up raised important questions for him. It led him to consider the wider effects of physical regeneration on people and communities. This background helped shape his perspective and initially drew him towards property, influenced by his interests in geography, social sciences and economics. He began thinking about where these different interests could come together. Ransford also had a longstanding interest in design, which provided another practical dimension to his decision to pursue planning.
Ransford went on to study Art and Town Planning at Leeds Beckett University. Following his studies, he held several positions in local government, including Planning Officer at the London Borough of Hackney and Head of Planning and Transport at Watford Borough Council. He progressed through the ranks for two main reasons: his leadership abilities and his willingness to embrace the different situations, challenges and opportunities that came his way.
Ransford's approach to leadership has always been centred on people. He made a point of meeting individually with all his managers to have conversations and understand their perspectives. He believes it is important to learn about people's motivations as well as the challenges they face. While a hiring manager may have a particular perspective on what is happening and what needs to be done, the reality on the front line is often quite different. For Ransford, the first challenge is understanding and managing the gap between these different perspectives. Ultimately, leadership is about the people responsible for delivering the work and ensuring that individuals, whatever their level within an organisation, are working at the level they should be. Sometimes, people may not even recognise what that level could look like. Ransford believes there is enormous potential in people who simply have not yet had the opportunity to realise it.
In 2002, Ransford was made redundant from Watford Borough Council following a corporate restructuring. He remembers feeling quite hurt at the time, acknowledging that redundancy is never an easy experience. Like many people in that situation, he experienced negative emotions and began questioning whether he was good enough. As part of his redundancy package, Ransford was offered career counselling. He met with a counsellor whom he describes as absolutely brilliant and who helped him think about what he wanted to do next. By that point, Ransford felt he had achieved as much as he could within the organisation. Things were beginning to become repetitive, and he recognised that it was probably time for a change. Looking back, he believes being made redundant was ultimately the best thing that could have happened to him. In many respects, it was the right decision for both him and the organisation, although he acknowledges that the process of making people redundant can be fairly brutal.
The counsellor helped Ransford recognise that, after spending so much time in local government, the employment market extended far beyond that sector. The skills he had developed throughout his local government career were transferable and valuable in other professional environments. This realisation encouraged him to establish Stewart Management, creating an opportunity to combine the aspects of local government that he most enjoyed with a more direct focus on planning.
Although the counsellor played a significant role in helping Ransford establish his own business, many other people influenced and supported him throughout his journey. One particularly important figure was Professor Stuart Hall. During school holidays, Ransford would watch his Open University programmes on the family's old black-and-white television after lunch. Stuart was a man who looked and spoke like Ransford's father, discussing people, society and change in urban areas. Watching him felt like receiving a personal call to action, although it took Ransford some time to work out how to respond to it. Sadly, Ransford never had the opportunity to meet Stuart and, to this day, remains jealous of his friend Leah MacGilp, who did.
Now retired, one of Ransford's proudest achievements is the work he undertook with others, particularly Helen Fadipe, to establish the BAME Planners Network. The Network provides a friendly platform for engagement between individuals and organisations that support its aims. It recognises that BAME planners are diverse, work across various sectors and represent a multicultural, multiracial society. The Network is also conscious of the varying levels of success experienced by different minority groups within the profession and the profound, long-lasting effects of workplace discrimination.
The importance of an organisation like the BAME Planners Network cannot be underestimated. There are numerous examples of racism within the planning profession, including individuals who have experienced some of its worst manifestations through direct and hurtful discrimination. However, discrimination is not always so obvious. Sometimes, it takes the form of microaggressions, where the accumulation of seemingly small incidents and attitudes can have a significant impact. This presents a major challenge for the industry, not only in encouraging people from different backgrounds and ethnic groups to enter the profession but also in ensuring that, once they are there, everything possible is done to make it a comfortable and supportive place to work.
The BAME Planners Network is part of the solution. It is not unusual for someone of Black or ethnic minority origin to find themselves as the only person from their background within an organisation or department. The Network provides a sense of connectivity, ensuring that even when individuals feel isolated in their workplace, they have access to other professionals who share similar experiences and understand what it is like to be in that position.
There is often an expectation that individuals from minority backgrounds must be flawless in their professional roles. However, developing and thriving within a profession requires open and honest relationships with colleagues, where people feel comfortable asking questions, learning from one another and developing their skills. Even today, creating these kinds of relationships remains difficult for many people because of the circumstances in which they find themselves. Ransford believes one of the BAME Planners Network's greatest strengths is its ability to provide this vital connectivity and support to its members.
Reflecting on his contribution to the profession, Ransford shared: “I feel that my role in the sector was to show the way for others. I started my planning career when there were very few black planners so there was no one to show me the way. My Windrush parents used to say that when they came to Britain they had to put up with a lot of things so that my generation wouldn't have to. I tried to carry that mantra forward, helping others on their professional journeys in small ways first and in bigger ways later through The Network.”
Given Ransford's passion for supporting others and sharing knowledge, we asked him to recommend a book that people might not necessarily know about but that he had found particularly valuable. He recommended The Pursuit of Wow by Tom Peters, an unconventional management book that helped him recognise that conventional solutions are not always the right options, particularly during topsy-turvy times.
It has been a pleasure to share Ransford's story. His remarkable career, commitment to the planning profession and dedication to supporting others leave an important legacy. His journey will hopefully inspire young Caribbean boys to recognise that planning is a profession in which they belong and can build successful careers. The work he has undertaken to establish and support the BAME Planners Network will continue to provide encouragement, opportunities and a sense of belonging for young and aspiring planners for years to come.
As Ransford begins this next chapter of his life, we wish him a peaceful and fulfilling retirement with his family. Stories like his deserve to be shared, celebrated and used to inspire the next generation of property professionals.
