 After being initially Deputy-Chairman, from 1975 to 1987 he was Chairman of the Telford Development Corporation at a time of extensive development of the Telford New Town, in which he demanded better designed council housing and office developments.He lived during his time in post within the new town, once describing the land within which it was to sit as "21 square miles dominated by a coalfield in final decline".After retirement, he emigrated to Hawaii, U.S.A. but continued to have interest in the area as Chairman of the Maxell Educational Trust which was formed by Hitachi Maxell, one of the industrial companies he encouraged to move into Telford.