I knew Richard many years ago and he always seemed to be a decent guy. He is a long term Bethelite who went to Gilead a couple of years ago - he presented the class speech at the graduation shown on borg tv. My guess is that he is being groomed for "bigger" things - at least a position on the uk branch committee, maybe a move to Warwick.
Incidently, those very posh houses have had ordinary bethelites - janitors etc - also staying in them. My experience has been that system of bidding for rooms based on number of years full-time service is pretty fair.
None of which changes the fact that they are going to make loads of money from from selling the houses.