Alumni Interview –Class of 1998 William Holman Civil Servant

1. What is your current role?

I lead a team of economists at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR)we are the economic regulator of the rail industry. You might have heard of Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat - we’re similar to them but for rail. At the moment my team is carrying out a big project to set the prices that Network Rail (which owns the train tracks and stations) can charge to train operators like Chiltern to run their trains on the network. Because Network Rail is a monopolist, these prices have to be set by an independent regulator (ORR).

2. If you were Prime Minister, what would you do?

As I’m a civil servant (which means I work for the government), I have to be careful about what I say!

My number one priority would be that the housing supply should be massively increased - the number of homes should always grow in line with the population. This would help flats and houses to be more affordable for young people when they start working. This would upset a lot of people because it means building homes over green fields, but the alternative is that future generations live in housing poverty.

3. What’s your favourite sandwich?

Important question. It has to be a hot sausage sandwich on brown bread, with ketchup, no butter.

4. What subject and where did you do your undergraduate degree? I studied Economics & Politics at the University of Bristol. I absolutely loved Bristol, it is a beautiful city and has a culture that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the country.

I also did a Masters degree in Economics of Regulation and Competition at City University in London - I studied part-time while working.

5. What made you decide to take your chosen career path after CGS?

Some of my earliest memories are of playing Monopoly with my Mum after school. I knew from that early age that I wanted to work in something to do with money (like real-life Monopoly), so I took economics at school and Uni, and then found out more about job opportunities while I was at Uni.