Inspired Lending's CEO on almost two decades in bridging finance, why private funding changes everything, and what the market needs to do to get back on track
Gavin Diamond (pictured top), chief executive of Inspired Lending, did not set out to launch a bridging lender. After nearly two decades working through some of the most turbulent periods in UK specialist finance – including the financial crisis of 2008 and a decade building United Trust Bank's bridging team into a £400 million-a-year operation – he left his most recent chief executive role in early 2023 without a plan.
What followed ended with the launch of Inspired Lending that autumn, backed by the Pears family and built around a proposition Diamond had spent his career watching others fail to consistently deliver.
"We weren't an unknown quantity," he told Mortgage Introducer. "We were just a new brand."
From accountant to bridging lender
Diamond's route into specialist finance was not a calculated one. A chartered accountant by training, he joined bridging finance company Cheval in 2007 as finance director with no mortgage background. Within a year, the global financial crisis was unfolding around him.
"I would never have chosen to experience what I experienced during those times," he said. "But there's no better way to learn than to have to experience things like that."
As the business contracted and resumed lending, those who remained were drawn into every corner of the operation. Diamond realised he was more interested in the lending and operational side than the finance function. By 2009, he was leading bridging teams rather than balance sheets.
That path later took him to United Trust Bank, where he spent almost a decade leading the bridging finance team for the last eight years. He then joined what was Spring Finance, later rebranded as Masthaven, as chief executive in 2022, before parting ways after less than a year.
Through subsequent conversations about market opportunities, a partnership with the Pears family took shape. Inspired Lending launched formally in November 2023, completed its first loan in December, and has operated since with a three-person team – Diamond, Owen Bentley, and Nathan Wilson, all formerly of United Trust Bank.
What does privately funded lending mean for brokers?
For brokers who have not yet worked with Inspired Lending, Diamond is precise about what the setup changes in practice. The business offers the full spectrum of specialist short-term finance – from vanilla bridging through to heavy refurbishment, conversion facilities, and revolving credit lines – across first and second charges, lending from £250,000 to £5 million. The more significant distinction, he argues, is how decisions are made.
"Terms from us, or decisions in principle from us, are effectively credit-backed from day one because we've issued those terms because we like the deal," he said. "By the same token, if we don't like the deal, we're not going to issue you meaningless terms because the deal doesn't have any legs."
Without senior debt providers imposing loan-to-value restrictions, fixed valuation requirements, or non-utilisation fees, Inspired Lending can assess each case on its merits. Brokers working in the specialist short-term finance market will recognise the contrast. Where institutionally funded lenders face pressure to deploy capital against standardised criteria, Inspired Lending's funders are also its shareholders.
Martin Reynolds, chair of the Financial Intermediary & Broker Association (FIBA), said the approach aligns with what intermediaries are increasingly looking for. "Brokers place significant value on working with lenders that are accessible, responsive and prepared to look at cases individually," he said. "Inspired Lending has built a reputation for taking a practical approach to complex transactions while maintaining close relationships with intermediaries."
Pricing for risk in a competitive market
The bridging market has not been short of ways to win business. Free valuations, procuration fee boosts, and headline rates designed to attract attention have all featured in a period when, by Diamond's assessment, fewer good deals are available and too many lenders are scrambling for them. Completions across the UK bridging sector fell to £1.8 billion in Q1, down from £2.5 billion in Q4 2025, according to data from the Bridging & Development Lenders Association (BDLA).
Diamond is candid about what that environment produces. "Anyone can put money out the door, but not everyone can get money back," he said. "You want to be lending on the right transactions to the right borrowers with the right security, with the right exit and earning the right margin for the risk that you're taking."
Enquiry flow has shifted away from acquisitions and purchases towards cases where borrowers need to release liquidity from existing portfolios, refinance positions where projects have overrun, or buy time from a lender that wants out. The last category Diamond approaches with particular care.
"What you don't want to be doing is taking on someone else's problem, because very often if you take on someone else's problem, that is exactly what it is," he said. "You just take on the problem, and it becomes your problem."
For brokers navigating a tighter specialist lending environment, the distinction between lenders who are genuinely selective and those simply repricing risk downward is increasingly consequential.
Lending through – and beyond – completion
One of Diamond's recurring themes is the gap between a completed loan and a successful exit. At Inspired Lending, the same three people who handle an enquiry at the outset underwrite it, manage it through its term, and work to bring it to clean repayment.
"With a lot of different lenders, you're dealing with a sales team initially, then an underwriting team, then a completions team, then a post-completions team, so there's often a disconnect," he said. "With us, we make decisions with the full information because the same people that dealt with the loan at the outset deal with it all the way through."
When things do not go to plan – projects run late, sales fall through, costs rise – Diamond's view is that working with the borrower is more likely to produce a clean exit than moving quickly to enforcement. Being privately funded gives the business flexibility that institutionally funded competitors often lack. Where a senior debt provider may impose a hard deadline on a facility, Inspired Lending can stay in a deal and support a borrower for longer.
The business joined FIBA in June as part of a deliberate effort to stay close to what brokers and their clients need. "As a lender, you can never operate in a silo," Diamond said. "If you lose sight of what people's requirements are, you're not providing the market with what they need."
Looking ahead
Diamond is measured about 2026. New lending volumes have not reached what he hoped, but the year's standout has been the repayment performance of loans written in earlier, more buoyant conditions.
"In a difficult environment, every lender from time to time has issues in their back book that they have to deal with," he said. "But it's how you deal with them and how you successfully exit them that for me is always the true measure."
He points to the adoption of AI tools within Inspired Lending's processes as one example of using a quieter period constructively – gathering information faster and making decisions more quickly, without removing human judgement from underwriting. For specialist lenders that navigate the current period well, the reward, he believes, will be the discipline and foundations to grow more effectively when conditions improve.
"If you as a business aren't adaptable to what happens in the market at any particular point in time or what the market demands, then you're just going to get left behind," he said. "It's just good business practice."
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