Hacking and Paterson Management Services is delighted to announce that our Chairman, Neil Watt, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Property Managers Association Scotland Excellence Awards Dinner, which took place on Friday 8 March 2024 in Glasgow.
Neil joined Hacking and Paterson in August 1982 (almost 42 years ago) as a trainee property manager. At H&P he quickly became a property manager looking after tenements in Yoker, Whiteinch and Partick where he also went round the doors collecting rents for the company`s landlord clients.
In August 1986, Neil was invited onto the Board at only 23 and was responsible for the overall administration of properties in the North and West of Glasgow. Then in 1989, only 7 years into his career, he became a Partner, continuing at the coal face, spending many evenings at homeowners’ meetings extolling the virtues of being factored. Whilst actively involved in growing H&P into what became the largest Property Factor in Scotland, he began looking at how he could design and influence improvements in the Scottish property industry.
As a keen supporter of the Property Managers Association Scotland in various guises since 1986, for a period spanning almost 20 years through to 2005, Neil had many achievements, serving actively as a Member, Director, Vice President, President and then Immediate Past President of PMAS and as a Director of the British Property Federation. He then contributed to the PMAS Council for a second spell, leading a successful period during his Presidency and providing supportive advice and papers for consultation. During the period when the future direction of PMAS was unclear, Neil put considerable personal time and effort into canvassing members to establish how they thought PMAS should continue and concluded that a new direction with a new support structure was necessary. Neil was able to galvanise the support of the membership and proposed an updated administrative support, which continues today.
In 1989 Neil was invited as an industry expert to join the UK Government’s Housing Improvement Task Force, which ultimately reported in 2000 to the newly formed Scottish Government, the result being the introduction of The Tenements [Scotland] Act 2004 and the Title Conditions [Scotland] Act 2003, which both brought about considerable improvements in tenement maintenance and law. In 2019, having led H&P through growth, additional offices and a new management regime, Neil handed over the reins of Managing Director to David Doran, shortly before the country went into a Covid lockdown and the whole world changed.
In the years following 2019, Neil has offered expert opinion as a member of The Tenement Maintenance Working Group, which has reported to Scottish Government and intends to implement legislative changes for the betterment and improvement of the country’s tenement housing stock. Neil always makes himself available for all at H&P and long-standing industry friends, many of whom have benefited hugely from his experience, input and friendship. He invests his time and finance in young enterprise and delights in seeing younger people develop their own business models and careers.
While keeping busy at H&P Neil also had a successful parallel career in professional football, playing for various teams during his first 10 years in the factoring industry, then moving into coaching and management of professional football clubs, sitting on Boards as a Director and latterly an advisor and consultant. Neil has always been grateful to business partners and colleagues for their support which allowed him time to follow his two passions. He continues his football interest as a founder member and Board member of Lifefit, a charity designed to help those in the sport, both current and retired, with the myriad of issues these people face.
The Directors and staff at Hacking and Paterson Management Services wish to pass on their congratulations to Neil.
Neil commented,
“I was most humbled to be recognised by PMAS for my service to the factoring industry over five decades. Over these years there have been significant legislative improvements in the sector for the benefit of customers and I believe there will continue to be more positive changes ahead ensuring homeowners have the levers to enable efficient maintenance of their property.
The factoring profession will continue to need people with an interest and aptitude for working in the sector. There are now clear training and educational pathways providing careers in factoring and I believe it is a good time to be involved in building a career. It is certainly a profession which is needed and one will be around for a long time to come.”
Photo credit Ryan Johnston
