Why Britain Needs Better Investors, Not Better Excuses
Investment is often presented as a game played in glass offices by people with perfect suits and predictable lives. In reality, the investors shaping Britain’s future tend to look very different. Many of them, like me, came from backgrounds where risk wasn’t a theoretical concept on a balance sheet, it was a daily reality. When you have served in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group, you develop a practical understanding of calculated risk, discipline, and long term planning. Those same principles underpin the way I invest today.
Over the last few years, I have built and led several companies across construction, sport, hospitality, regeneration, and land development. I have founded businesses that now employ over a hundred people, and I have worked directly with more than 3,000 landowners across the UK through The British Regeneration Project. What that has taught me is that Britain doesn’t have a shortage of opportunity, it has a shortage of people willing to build, commit, and think generationally.
This is my blueprint for how I approach investing in 2025 and why I think more working people should be doing the same.
Investing is About Solving Problems, Not Predicting Trends
Most people think investing starts with spotting the next hot idea. It doesn’t. It starts with identifying real world problems and creating the systems to solve them. Every successful company I’ve built has been rooted in something very simple: supply and demand.
When I founded Plas Coch Luxury Escapes (PCLE), I wasn’t trying to be clever. I looked at the numbers. Staycation demand exploded during lockdown and never fell back to pre-2020 levels. Trends show searches for “staycation” have remained significantly higher year on year, fuelled by rising flight prices and cost of living pressures . Instead of worrying about the market, I provided what the market was clearly asking for: high quality accommodation with strong visuals, consistency, and service.
The results speak for themselves. PCLE went from 31 stays in 2023 to 220 stays in 2024 for the barn alone, generating over £72,000 in revenue in a single year. The cottage grew by 418 percent during the same period .
Growth isn’t luck, it’s maths.
The British Regeneration Project: Investing in Land, Data, and Long Term Impact
The British Regeneration Project (TBRP) exists because landowners and developers across the UK are overwhelmed by slow planning systems, impossible lending criteria, and rising interest rates. Lenders now commonly demand 30 to 40 percent equity up front. Some developers wait months for decisions and face duplicated valuation processes that can cripple cashflow .
Instead of criticising the system, we built a new one.
TBRP now works with more than 3,763 landowners and over 300 developers nationwide. We have a pipeline of opportunities spanning residential, staycations, commercial spaces, and data centres. Across our developers, the collective GDV sits at more than £2.1 billion, and there is over £300 million in shovel-ready development waiting for support .
We streamlined due diligence, removed bottlenecks, built a fast track funding model, and created a bridge between landowners and developers that simply didn’t exist before. That is investing. Take a problem, engineer a solution, and scale it.
Why Staycations Remain One of Britain’s Most Reliable Asset Classes
People often ask if the staycation boom is over. It isn’t.
Inbound tourism alone is set to reach £257 billion by 2025. Snowdonia National Park now attracts up to 700,000 visitors a year, and visitor numbers have increased massively since 2018 . Even during the cost of living crisis, when people cut luxuries, they didn’t cut breaks. They stayed closer to home.
Across the UK, accommodation with strong aesthetics, good photography, and proximity to nature or heritage sites is thriving. Our properties consistently outperform the local market because everything from the design to the pricing is data-driven.
Demand does not disappear, it reorganises. If you adapt to the new structure, you win.
The Case for Regeneration: Britain Doesn’t Need More Land, It Needs More Leadership
We have thousands of underused sites across the UK. In Wales alone, you can drive through towns filled with opportunity that nobody has had the courage or organisation to unlock.
Britain doesn’t need more space. It needs better investors.
At TBRP, we are:
• regenerating unused barns into commercial and staycation assets
• supporting councils with their town plans
• connecting landowners to long term passive income
• creating new job opportunities locally
• designing eco-focused architecture that respects natural landscapes
• working with trusted partners including Homes for England and Development Bank of Wales
And we are doing it at scale.
Investing in land isn’t just about profit. It is about contributing to the long term economic and social fabric of the UK. If we want a stronger Britain, we need developments that create homes, attract tourism, and build business ecosystems. That is the core mission behind everything we do.
How I Approach Investments Today
My principles are simple:
1. Numbers over noise.
Markets change, but demand patterns rarely lie.
2. Partnerships over ego.
Whether ex-forces communities, developers, or councils, the best investments are collaborative.
3. Long term over short term.
Quick money creates quick collapses. Real investment builds generational stability.
4. Community over isolation.
Every project, from a cottage conversion to a 278-unit development in Wrexham, should improve the area it sits in, not deplete it.
5. Discipline over emotion.
The military taught me that structure beats intensity. Investment is the same.
Why More People Should Invest in 2025
We are entering one of the most important economic periods in modern Britain. House prices are rising, interest rates remain volatile, and businesses across the country are looking for innovative ways to stay afloat. At the same time, tourism is booming, land is underutilised, and councils are desperate for regeneration partners who know what they’re doing.
Investment isn’t reserved for the elite. It is for people willing to learn, commit, and take calculated risks.
We have everything here in Britain to create a thriving economy. What we need now is more people stepping forward with genuine drive, vision, and resilience.