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00:00Hello everybody and welcome to the first in a series of interviews we're going to be doing at Southams Newspapers.
00:05Today we start the first interview with a very special guest.
00:09He is the flamboyant owner of the Burr Island Hotel down here at the Southams.
00:14He is also a real estate developer and a property developer.
00:19He is the one and only Giles Fuchs.
00:22I mentioned to you earlier that when I bought it, or before I bought it, I hadn't heard of it.
00:32I mean, to my shame.
00:34And I think you're right, I think that the previous owner, to me,
00:39was very happy with his occupancy which rounded about 50%.
00:45It was very, you could only come to the hotel and pretty well the pub if you're a guest at the hotel.
00:53And so they didn't need to market it very much because they were happy with where it was coming along.
00:59Interesting though, the chap who saved it, the saver of Burr,
01:03is a chap called Tony Porter who has written a couple of books.
01:06So Tony was last for a particular generation that went and worked in Africa.
01:11He worked for ICI. He was basically a travelling salesman.
01:15He came from a middle class family.
01:17And he then came back to England and he worked for his sister-in-law,
01:22who was Ms Bieber, founded Bieber, the fashion house.
01:27And so his wife was the sister of Bieber and he worked for her in King's Road.
01:32He then was in their PR marketing department.
01:35He realised he was good at that, so he set up a PR company in London.
01:39Lived in Kensington.
01:42And then he founded London Fashion Week.
01:45I mean, this chap, he lives locally, he's a super chap.
01:49Older now, of course.
01:52And then he sold everything, PR company, his boat, his house, and bought the island,
01:59which was at that point derelict because a development company owned it
02:02and they were thinking of turning it into timeshares.
02:06But they didn't get the planning, luckily.
02:08So he bought it on the 5th of January 1986.
02:12And it had holes in the ceiling, water was coming through everywhere.
02:17And he was the first guy who put it back together.
02:20At that point it only had, I think, 13 suites.
02:27I love a Geoffrey West shoe, what can I tell you?
02:29If you know Guy West.
02:31Several things.
02:34Yes, I think if you're going to do a job, do it well.
02:37In terms of...
02:39In business, if you have something at the higher end of the excellence bracket,
02:46when it gets difficult, you can reduce your price.
02:49Where if you start at the bottom, it doesn't matter how much you reduce your price by,
02:53you might be empty.
02:55So our builders in London, most of which have won Interior of London,
02:58the Telegraph and Property Week Interior of London Awards,
03:01which are fantastic.
03:02These are the serviced offices you have seen.
03:04So they're basically a hotel of offices.
03:06And I would only be drawn, I'm not a hotelier,
03:11I wasn't actually looking for a hotel when we bought this.
03:14But I would only buy something at the higher end.
03:18Because I do like the glamour, I'm very shallow, what can I tell you?
03:26So if I go back to 2017, when I was introduced to it.
03:30So I'd been interviewed on BBC, it was August, it was A-levels.
03:35I'm notoriously only got an E in English.
03:37So they had me in to go,
03:39kids, don't worry, you can be successful if you don't get your A-levels.
03:43So that was it. On the back of that, this chap phoned me.
03:45I knew, I think he'd been a client in one of our buildings.
03:48And said, oh, shall we have a coffee? We had a coffee.
03:51And he told me very proudly he was buying this island hotel pub,
03:54which was Burr Island.
03:56And I'd never heard of it, as I've said.
03:58And I was flabbergasted, frankly, that there was an island here.
04:02And that it could be bought.
04:04And it was so beautiful.
04:06So I did fall in love with it at that moment.
04:08But I wasn't thinking any more of it.
04:10So a week later, he phoned me and went,
04:12my funding's fallen out of bed, would you like to buy it?
04:14And I just went, yes.
04:16And then I came and misty shopped it with my sister.
04:18And I thought we could do something with it.
04:20But I was just an investor.
04:23So the team who put it together, him, another chap in hotels,
04:27and a hotel management company,
04:29said that the deal is we're going to improve it
04:32through the hotel management company.
04:34And the chap who was the finance hotels
04:37and brought money together, basically,
04:39said I'm going to get planning.
04:41And then in five years, we're going to sell it at a profit.
04:44So that was their plan. He said, are you in?
04:46I said, yeah, that's the plan.
04:48But our plan was at that point to buy out the other investors.
04:51Because we owned 67% of it anyway.
04:53We thought at that point, we'd have saved enough pennies
04:55and shekels to buy out the rest of the people.
05:00COVID, inflation, high interest rates, when it came to it,
05:06we didn't have the money to buy the rest of them out of it.
05:09So it had to go on the market.
05:10That was part of the contract we bought into.
05:13Luckily or unluckily, I mean, I'm quite a fatalist in that respect.
05:17If it had gone through, I would have been happy.
05:20I'm happier it didn't go through because it was,
05:23I didn't need an excuse to take it off the market at that point.
05:26It fell through on exchange.
05:27So we had this chap.
05:30He made an offer.
05:31We were lawyers.
05:32We got to the day of exchange.
05:33He went, I'm not buying.
05:34Well, he actually didn't return my calls.
05:36So I phoned him and went, what's going on?
05:38And he went, you want to know when I'm going to exchange?
05:40I said, well, kind of.
05:41And he went, I'm not buying.
05:42Anyway, people are like that, aren't they?
05:44So that gave me the excuse, if I needed one, to keep it.
05:47So all reverse.
05:50Right, well, if we're going to keep it,
05:52we're very lucky with our London business.
05:54It runs like a, you would have said in the old days,
05:57a thing, a sewing machine.
05:58But it runs beautifully.
06:00We have an amazing managing director and a girl called Georgia Sandon
06:02who's worked for us since she was 21.
06:05She's now 33.
06:06We're still involved.
06:08But that allowed me and Nicky, my sister,
06:10who I'm in business with, to come down here
06:13with our vision of turning this,
06:15so this is about last September,
06:17with our vision to turn it into the thing
06:20that we always hoped it would be.
06:22So we've started that and we're getting through it.
06:28Exactly, exactly.
06:29I mean, we had been doing a lot.
06:31I mean, we had, it was last year,
06:33the year when it was being sold, it was 78% occupied.
06:36I mean, we had done,
06:38the plan of getting it full and renovating it
06:41had been done, it was continuous.
06:44But we can do better than that.
06:46We can make it a better experience.
06:48We can look after the fabric better.
06:49We can look after the antiques better.
06:51I mean, I was just sitting in reception this morning
06:53thinking that kick plate needs replacing,
06:56that we need an Art Deco finger plate on that door,
06:59we need an Art Deco handle on that door.
07:01Just, you know, as an investor, you don't see that necessarily.
07:04You're not coming down enough.
07:05But as living here, working here, you see all that stuff.
07:08So at 78%, it makes about £6 million of revenue.
07:13I mean, 25 bedrooms and a pub.
07:15I think I'm happy to say that.
07:18I think part of what happened before we took it over
07:22is that although it was making remarkably good profits,
07:27I mean, at that, you should be making profits.
07:29We felt that there was,
07:31we felt that there was,
07:33I mean, at that, you should be making profits.
07:35We felt that there was not so much care in the expenditure.
07:39So part of what we've done is we've made things work better.
07:42We've just saved money.
07:43So that's part of what we're doing.
07:45And that, making things work better,
07:47is a much better guest experience.
07:49And the whole idea, if someone comes here once,
07:51you want them to come again and again.
07:59It's all about staff.
08:01So our London business is all about staff.
08:03So if I reverse back to 2009,
08:06when my sister and I decided we were going to go back in,
08:09so we'd been in the service office industry.
08:11Nicky, my sister, had sold a business.
08:13We'd been out for about five years.
08:14Went back into it in 2009.
08:16And then 2010, our business started to take off
08:19and we had lots of conversations about strategy.
08:22And we have always known as a family
08:24that the most important thing is staff.
08:26Yes, you have a beautiful building that's empty.
08:29I mean, you go past beautiful restaurants, they're empty.
08:31People like us, we're empty.
08:32It's all about staff.
08:33And so we said, look, we will succeed or fail
08:38based on doing always the right thing
08:40and doing the right thing in business,
08:41or in life, actually, not business.
08:43In life can be really, really...
08:45I've been asked to do stuff that is really tempting for money,
08:48but it's the wrong thing.
08:49So we set up this beautiful business
08:52where our staff in London just love each other,
08:54look after each other, support each other.
08:56So in terms of here, what do we do?
08:57We employ people on their personality
09:00and we train them to do the hard skill.
09:03So we employ them on the soft skill,
09:05train them to do the hard skill.
09:06Now, they come wanting to be in hospitality in the first place,
09:08so it's not a big sell.
09:10But we have the added difficulty that we're on an island.
09:16So we have some staff accommodation on the island,
09:18but we have 75 staff at this time of year,
09:21up to 90, 95 in the summer.
09:24So housing staff, so we bought them a hotel and did it up.
09:29We have a lovely, beautiful 20-bedroom hotel over there
09:31with en-suite bedrooms, a massive lounge.
09:33So they live close by?
09:34Yes, a lot of them.
09:36Here and there.
09:37So we have, let's say, 12 rooms here,
09:4020 rooms there, 32 rooms,
09:42another four here, 36 rooms.
09:44Caring after staff is important.
09:46I've seen that you personally interview staff.
09:50Yes. How did you know that?
09:51It must be somewhere on their website.
09:52Yes. I do it here now.
09:54So one of the first things that happened in September
09:56is I interviewed every single member of staff.
09:58Is that key to being a success in business,
10:02is to still play a direct role in the day-to-day running of the business?
10:08Well, I am sure lots of people say different things
10:10about why they're successful.
10:12But if you start with the staff,
10:14the most important thing,
10:16and what you really want to do is retain your staff,
10:18that journey starts when you first advertise the job.
10:21And then if you want to prove to those interviewees
10:25that you are serious about employing the right people,
10:28yes, you need the head of the department or the hotel manager,
10:31but I want you to be the right person
10:33because if I can be the one consistent thing,
10:36I don't know if you sail,
10:37but in sailing is triangulation.
10:39So triangulation, you take a mark and then you end up there.
10:41So if you have me continually,
10:44whatever it is I'm looking for,
10:46I could tell you, but I'm not sure it's right,
10:48but I really look for family values,
10:49if I'm looking for nice people.
10:51If I can triangulate,
10:53and each person has something in common,
10:55then we create a team.
10:57And I think before what was happening is,
10:59you can do the job, yes, we'll have you,
11:01and no one gelled.
11:09I don't think you have to be ruthless,
11:11if I might say.
11:12So that was one other thing, Nick and I,
11:14when we started Office Space in town,
11:15we said we're going to continue with our,
11:18the way we've been brought up
11:19was integrity and honesty.
11:22I mean, you have to make the right decision,
11:24if you call that ruthless.
11:25So if someone's misbehaving, you've got to sack them.
11:27I don't see how it's ruthless,
11:28they misbehave, they nick money, they've got to go.
11:31So if I start with your first question is,
11:34it's really difficult to answer
11:36because a lot of being successful is about luck.
11:39You're so happy.
11:40So our biggest bit of luck...
11:42Do you don't make your own luck then?
11:44Maybe.
11:45So if I start with that,
11:49I try not to boast, but I do, probably.
11:53I think I've always worked harder
11:55than anyone else I'm in an office with.
11:58So when I left school,
12:01in English,
12:02perhaps that was the thing that motivated me,
12:04I became an estate agent.
12:06I worked from eight to eight, seven days a week
12:08for about two or three years.
12:10And then on my third year,
12:12I had enough money to set up my own estate agency
12:14and then I worked even longer.
12:16So I would say hard work.
12:18I think it's luck.
12:20My mother is a very empathetic person
12:25and I've got that gene.
12:27So that's just luck.
12:28It's like being a good footballer.
12:30Did it help that she was already in the business?
12:32Not only she wasn't an estate agent,
12:34she was in serviced offices where my sister was.
12:37Did it help?
12:38Yes, she founded the industry.
12:39So definitely, definitely helped.
12:41So working hard, empathy.
12:44Now, although I only got an A in English,
12:46that was because I was a lazy bugger
12:49and I liked sport.
12:52Probably could have done better,
12:54which is probably why my father was so angry.
12:58But working hard, empathy
13:01and choosing something that I really, really enjoyed.
13:04In terms of the other businesses,
13:06we'll go to Gunner.
13:07Now Gunner,
13:08part of my failing is,
13:10I have a short interest span.
13:15So once Osset was working really well,
13:17I then moved on.
13:20From estate, he moved on, moved on, moved on.
13:22So the drinks was because
13:24if you go to a sailing club or a tennis club
13:26or a golf club and you ask for a Gunner,
13:28the barman makes you a Gunner.
13:29So if you're on a corporate golf day,
13:31you go to the bar and say,
13:32I'll have a Gunner.
13:33He's making 20 Gunners
13:34and they're different qualities.
13:37They add different things.
13:38There is a Gunner.
13:39There's a recipe for a Gunner,
13:40but they don't follow it.
13:41And you're waiting a long time.
13:43So I just thought,
13:45obviously you've got to put it in a can, obviously.
13:49But that business isn't making money.
13:51It isn't making profit.
13:52I mean, it's my baby
13:53and I haven't spent any time with it.
13:54I've got a great MD.
13:55We're in a lot of amazing venues
13:57like the Belfry and Rollins and Ann's
13:59and Rolls and Georgie's.
14:00Are you saying because it's all these businesses,
14:02some of them just get sort of...
14:04I haven't got time for it.
14:05I've got an MD.
14:06In fact, my daughters really keep up.
14:07I've got two daughters,
14:0823 and 21,
14:09and she's great at marketing.
14:10She said,
14:11Daddy, just give it to me.
14:12I'll deal with it.
14:13So I'm tempted to do that
14:14because this is my total focus at the moment.
14:16So I also have a cleaning company.
14:19So this is another thing that I think works.
14:21So my cleaning company
14:22is owned a third by a mate of mine
14:25and two thirds by me and my sister.
14:27And I've known him for a hundred years
14:29and I trust him.
14:31And he works really hard, James Carver.
14:33And so that works.
14:36The drinks, not yet.
14:37I have a building,
14:38small, very small residential building company
14:41with a schoolmate.
14:42Trust him.
14:44I've got Galleon Homes here.
14:46Galleon Homes is a cottage
14:47in a restaurant over there.
14:48Harold.
14:49Harold's family.
14:51Yes.
14:52Yes.
14:53I know.
14:54So many.
14:55They all make money apart from Gunner.
14:58And yet Gunner's the one that stands out more.
15:02It's very high profile.
15:04We'll get there.
15:05Richard E. Grant called us
15:07at the end of last year and said
15:09he doesn't drink.
15:10Who knew that?
15:11I think it must have been Withnail and I ruined him.
15:13But he doesn't drink
15:15and his daughter was getting married
15:17and he said,
15:18can I have Gunner,
15:19the non-alcoholic one,
15:20for my daughter's wedding?
15:21So it'll be,
15:23I think, bizarrely,
15:24it might be beginning
15:25everything I've done together
15:27when I finally get time
15:28to breathe some life into it.
15:35So when we got planning here,
15:38obviously that was part of what they were doing,
15:41and we had a consultant
15:43and I think his name was Professor King
15:45or Dr. King from Bristol University,
15:47very well-respected
15:49sustainability professor
15:51and I had a long chat with him.
15:53He's very, very, much cleverer than me.
15:55Very, very clever.
15:56He said, Giles,
15:57the only thing that would make a difference here
15:59is having a wind turbine on the island.
16:01Now, obviously you're never going to get...
16:03So that was a joke, really.
16:04You're never going to get...
16:05It would power the whole of Southampton.
16:14I don't think...
16:15So we are about...
16:17So, not at the expense of the business.
16:20So we do stuff that is easy,
16:23that helps,
16:24equally helps us,
16:25that helps the environment,
16:26where we can.
16:27Solar panels,
16:28obviously easy one.
16:29So all the fuel we buy in all our buildings
16:32is carbon zero.
16:35They offset it.
16:36That's our London buildings,
16:37that's here.
16:38Now, that's really not us.
16:39We pay a fraction more for it,
16:41but that's fine.
16:43In terms of stuff that helps us,
16:45having the staff nearby
16:46is a very low carbon footprint
16:48because not many of them are driving.
16:50That's just a benefit of being here.
16:54Buying food locally,
16:56that is also...
16:57We've got it all here.
16:59Probably...
17:01As much as we can.
17:02But you can't always do that, of course.
17:04So buying local beef,
17:05local cheese,
17:06local whatever it is.
17:08Fish.
17:09Fish, yeah.
17:10I mean,
17:11the chap who does a lot of work for us,
17:13he goes fishing here
17:14and he brings it to our kitchen.
17:15Fantastic.
17:16And lobsters and all sorts.
17:18So I think where we can...
17:19So rather than the fishman coming and bringing his...
17:21Fresh fish from Grimsby.
17:22I'm sure you have it in your street.
17:24Fresh, bought this today.
17:26Why not buy it locally?
17:27So where we can...
17:28What I'm saying is
17:29not at the cost of the business,
17:30but of course where we can,
17:31we want to
17:32and will continue to be sustainable.
17:34In fact,
17:35the serviced office industry,
17:37pretty well the whole of sustainability program
17:40was written by
17:41George Sandman, my MD in London.
17:43If you go on my website
17:44and download it,
17:45it's magnificent.
17:53The first and most important thing is
17:55to need affordable housing,
17:57you need jobs.
17:58And I think part of the South Hampshire,
18:00there aren't many jobs.
18:01And we're the biggest employer in the area
18:03by miles.
18:0475 now and up to 95 and so on.
18:07So I think
18:09part of that is
18:10the only people who can afford
18:11to be here,
18:12people who have jobs
18:13and probably good jobs,
18:14those people aren't here,
18:16are they?
18:17I mean,
18:18yes, you need farmhouses.
18:19There's some really good affordable housing
18:21built,
18:22just been built in
18:23St Anne's Chapel.
18:26I'm not really...
18:27I am very pro it,
18:28but if you built a load in
18:30Big Bury on Sea,
18:31unless they're going to work here,
18:33I'm not sure where they're going to work.
18:34And then you've got the travelling
18:36and the car
18:37and the carbon footprint
18:38and all that.
18:49The one big thing,
18:50so it's very difficult at the moment
18:51because I think
18:52one would argue,
18:53although we don't know until later,
18:54that we're in a period of stagflation
18:56and notoriously
18:57there's no solution to stagflation.
18:59Inflation, deflation,
19:00in theory,
19:01you have a few levers you can pull,
19:02but in stagflation,
19:03you just...
19:04Inflation, low growth.
19:05You don't know what...
19:06Yeah, exactly.
19:07So the only thing...
19:08So I'm a social democrat,
19:10realistically,
19:11so I'm very much supporting
19:13the poor and the needy in society.
19:16At the same time,
19:17I'm a capitalist,
19:18so I think one of the motivations
19:19for getting up and going in the morning
19:20is the same as being an elite sportsman.
19:22You get up,
19:23you get fitter,
19:24you work harder
19:25and that creates more work and business
19:28for the environment.
19:29So I'm not a socialist in that,
19:31but I am a social democrat.
19:33In terms of what the one thing,
19:36the one thing,
19:37and it might be possible,
19:38and it depends who you talk to,
19:40is we need to reduce interest rates.
19:42Reduce interest rates.
19:43People's mortgage...
19:44That's the Bank of England, though, isn't it?
19:45Yeah.
19:46No, exactly.
19:47No, it is.
19:48But there are other people as well.
19:50I mean,
19:51they're very academically clever,
19:53I have no doubt,
19:54but are they wise?
19:55I don't know.
20:04I'm paying much more tax than most people
20:08and so to say you're bashing them
20:10is not,
20:11I don't think,
20:12reasonable or even an accurate translation
20:14of what's happening.
20:15I'm paying the extra NRI,
20:17I'm paying,
20:18if it was ex-corporation,
20:19I'm paying the ex-corporation.
20:20The VAT goes up,
20:21it goes down,
20:22I'm paying that
20:23and happy to do that.
20:24I am really happy
20:25and I've always paid my taxes
20:26because I believe in our society.
20:28In terms of one-off,
20:31the tax is,
20:33it's kind of,
20:34it's not,
20:35it's almost irrelevant.
20:36It's not about the tax.
20:37The tax goes up 1%,
20:38down 10%,
20:39NRIs,
20:40huge change.
20:42That's the biggest change we've had
20:43in 40, 50 years.
20:45I'm going to pay it,
20:46as is everyone else,
20:47and I'm going to live with it
20:48and luckily,
20:49we have businesses,
20:50apart from Ghana,
20:51know it,
20:53we have businesses
20:54that can afford to do that.
20:55The biggest issue is the spend.
20:58So if you ask me about tax,
21:00I'm happy with the taxes,
21:01you take a bit off BP,
21:03you take the windfall tax,
21:04kind of irrelevant.
21:06Although I have got some ideas
21:07about particularly inheritance tax.
21:10I'm going to come to that one
21:12because I think that is an interesting one.
21:13But it isn't about the tax,
21:15it's about the spend
21:16and we don't spend effectively.
21:19We don't,
21:20we have two,
21:21me,
21:22and I think the country is like a business,
21:24your home is like,
21:25they're all related.
21:26They should be managed the same,
21:27your business,
21:28your home,
21:29your country.
21:30You should say,
21:31that's my income,
21:32if I can borrow a bit,
21:33if that's going to create more income,
21:34but on the whole,
21:35I have to live within these rules.
21:37As a country,
21:38we just thrown this out.
21:40There's no control whatsoever.
21:43So I think it's about,
21:44it's about understanding
21:45where we can be more efficient.
21:46We take a pound off the tax man
21:48and we spend,
21:49it's worth 50p.
21:50For me,
21:51that's mad.
21:52We need to make sure
21:53that's more efficient.
21:54How exactly?
21:55Well,
21:56I'm not in politics and government,
21:57but to make that 50p
21:58closer to the pound
21:59you took off them.
22:00Taxation system?
22:01Yes.
22:02Spend system.
22:03Spend system.
22:09Trying to make a decision
22:10about something,
22:11you have to try and remain
22:12unemotional about it.
22:13So that's where I try
22:14and sit with most of my life
22:16and I'll say something
22:17and it might be wrong,
22:18of course,
22:19but we only know later.
22:20But if I look at the farmers
22:22and a lot of farms
22:23have been amalgamated
22:24from little
22:25and they've ended up
22:26in these huge corporations,
22:27massive corporations,
22:29farming lots of,
22:30thousands of acres.
22:33You take a small farmer
22:34who might be worth
22:35a million quid,
22:36two million,
22:37well,
22:38let's say two million quid,
22:39shall we?
22:40And,
22:41but they're not making
22:42a lot of money,
22:43but they are providing
22:44essential food.
22:45It is a family business.
22:46They're working long hours
22:48and if you say,
22:49after,
22:50when you die,
22:51your million pounds,
22:52you're going to pay
22:53all this tax,
22:54you're going to have
22:55to sell your farm,
22:56probably,
22:57the only people
22:58who are going to buy
22:59that farm are
23:00the corporations.
23:01I don't see any logic
23:02in that.
23:03It doesn't make any sense.
23:04On the other hand,
23:05you've got other people
23:06who buy farms
23:07for inheritance tax purposes
23:08so they have massive,
23:09rich, rich people.
23:10The government claims
23:11it's only going to affect
23:12500 or so.
23:14I guess we'll find out.
23:15500?
23:16Well,
23:17wouldn't that be nice?
23:18I've no way of telling.
23:19We've no way of telling,
23:20have we?
23:21I don't think.
23:22The Countryside Alliance
23:23thinks it's going to be
23:24way more,
23:2570,000 or whatever.
23:26I can't tell.
23:27And what period of time
23:28are they talking about?
23:29It just seems irrelevant
23:30to, I guess,
23:31how many people.
23:32It doesn't make any sense,
23:33really.
23:34I think,
23:35what are we trying to achieve?
23:36What are they trying to achieve?
23:37Are they just trying
23:38to achieve fairness?
23:41It speaks to wild animals.
23:42I mean,
23:43life isn't fair
23:44and actually,
23:45it's not fair.
23:46But in terms of,
23:47you could easily look at,
23:48so why do footballers
23:49get paid £5 million a year?
23:50I mean,
23:51why are they not taking
23:52the money off them?
23:53I mean,
23:54with all due respect,
23:55they don't need
23:56£5 million a year
23:57and they generally behave,
23:58I shouldn't say this,
23:59they can behave badly.
24:00I don't,
24:01the farmers who are
24:02working really hard,
24:03bringing up their children,
24:04why can't they be left
24:05and earning £20,000 a year?
24:06Why can't they be left
24:07with their £1 million?
24:08I don't get it.
24:09I don't get it.
24:10It just looks a bit
24:11like envy to me.
24:13How about this?
24:14Inheritance tax.
24:15So,
24:16I was thinking about
24:17inheritance tax because
24:18what they're trying to do
24:19is achieve more money
24:20through money to pay for,
24:21in my view,
24:22the badly run business
24:23of the country.
24:24That's my view.
24:25So,
24:26there are two ways to do it.
24:27So you do that
24:28without impacting
24:29the business of the country,
24:31which they are.
24:32But,
24:33inheritance tax,
24:34so what happens
24:35when you put your money
24:36in your pension
24:37and you pay no tax on it?
24:38And if it remains
24:39in your pension,
24:40you pay no tax on it.
24:41And,
24:42currently,
24:43no one's going to love me
24:44for this if you print this,
24:45by the way,
24:46but it seems to make sense.
24:47And,
24:48currently,
24:49you can move that money
24:50outside your estate
24:51tax-free to your kids.
24:52That doesn't make sense.
24:53Surely,
24:54it'd be fairer
24:55for that money,
24:56they're incentivising
24:57you to put money
24:58in your pension pot
24:59so you can live your life
25:00happily in retirement.
25:01And you've earned that money
25:02and they're saying
25:03don't have tax
25:04and that's a burden
25:05taken off the state.
25:06Makes perfect sense.
25:07But when you die,
25:08wouldn't it be good,
25:09that big pot you've got,
25:10is to pay the tax
25:11you haven't,
25:12the pension,
25:13to pay the tax
25:14you haven't paid?
25:15And then the rest of it,
25:16after the tax,
25:17can go to your children.
25:18Wouldn't that make more sense?
25:19And I imagine
25:20that amount of money
25:21is enormous.
25:22There's one tax
25:23raised,
25:24which I think,
25:25very,
25:26rather than doing
25:27what they're doing,
25:28which is just saying
25:29you can't take the money,
25:30which seems,
25:31well,
25:32it's going to be
25:33a difficult sell.
25:34It's a bit like
25:35the pensioners' fuel.
25:36It's going to be
25:37a difficult sell.
25:38I think that'll be
25:39a no-brainer for me,
25:40is,
25:41here am I,
25:42knowing nothing
25:43about anything,
25:44politics.
25:45Giles' books on politics
25:46is,
25:47what was it about?
25:48It was about gambling.
25:49So,
25:50gambling is,
25:51I looked it up
25:52the other day,
25:53thinking tax,
25:54obviously,
25:55£15 billion
25:56industry in this UK.
25:57Now,
25:58some of that
25:59is just the money
26:00going in,
26:01and some of that
26:02is the money
26:03being paid out.
26:04But,
26:05let's just say,
26:06£7 billion of that
26:07is money coming out.
26:08And we know that
26:09millions and millions
26:10and millions
26:11of lottery money
26:12is paid out
26:13to winners a year.
26:14I don't know how much it is.
26:15There must be
26:16hundreds and hundreds
26:17of millions.
26:18No tax.
26:19Isn't that odd?
26:20So,
26:21we've got most
26:22of the river,
26:23and we've got
26:24all the people
26:25in between
26:26who are
26:27about
26:28looking after
26:29the river
26:30and the area
26:31and
26:32trying to get
26:33to net...
26:34I've always been
26:35intrigued about
26:36net zero,
26:37because it seems
26:38that it's probably unlikely.
26:39But,
26:40it's a good aim,
26:41isn't it?
26:42So,
26:43the direction of travel
26:44would be lovely
26:45to get to net zero,
26:46but we've got the lights on.
26:47So,
26:48I mean,
26:49I'm not sure
26:50how that works.
26:51So,
26:52yeah,
26:53we're very pro
26:54helping them,
26:55giving them a clubhouse.
26:56We do very little.
26:57We're very pro it.
26:58We want to help them,
26:59and this allows them
27:00to raise their profile.
27:01So,
27:02they're getting
27:03free bangs for their buck
27:04by having it here.
27:05We like the idea
27:06we don't have
27:07much input
27:08apart from stuff
27:09we do in our business.
27:10So,
27:11it's a lovely thing.
27:12We'll always be involved
27:13where we can.
27:14Charles Fuchs,
27:15it's been a pleasure
27:16talking to you.
27:17Thank you very much.
27:18Pleasure talking to you.
27:19I feel as though
27:20my PR company
27:21has been very proff with me.