Real estate leaders fear the industry’s needs will be forgotten as the dust settles on the race to be the UK’s next prime minister.
With Liz Truss now seen as all-but-certain to succeed over Rishi Sunak, professionals across the sector are wary of the new government’s priorities for the built environment.
Some have been left aghast at weeks of infighting within the Conservative party since the resignation of Boris Johnson. Writing in this week’s EG, Vu.City chief executive Jamie Holmes said both levelling up and environmental issues appeared to have fallen down the government’s agenda as “Truss and Sunak tear each other apart like children in a playground”.
Neil Hockin, head of shopping centre leasing at Lunson Mitchenall, expects the victor to be “so obsessed with the next General Election they will only focus on populist vote-winning polices and our sector will get ignored”.
“My biggest concern is how the current political hiatus looks to international investors,” he added. “At a moment when the government needs to show strong leadership, they have spent the best part of four months squabbling and playing petty people-minded political games. Both landlords and operators need fresh capital to grow business and trade assets. International investors will be looking for stable economies to deploy their capital. It worries me that, as we lurch from one crisis to another, we will miss out to the next wave of investment.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “We understand the new PM’s immediate priority will be to tackle the cost of living challenges facing millions of households this winter. However, in parallel we need to continue to build the framework for our longer term prosperity as a nation.
“We expect the new PM to remain committed to levelling up across the UK and close collaboration between departments will be key. There is no point creating a new framework for regeneration without a clear strategy to unlock the private capital to deliver it. The new occupants at Number 10 and 11, and their cabinet colleagues, will need to work closely together and engage proactively with the property industry and other private sector partners to maximise investment into the UK and make every pound work as hard as possible.”
If Truss’s triumph seems a foregone conclusion, her choice of ministers will be closely watched – not least in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
“As we battle the cost-of-living crisis and seek to get our economy back on track it is vital that the next crop of ministers within what is currently DLUHC fully understands the real challenges facing those people in the UK aged between 25 and 45 who desperately want to own their own home, yet find that ladder of housing opportunity fundamentally broken,” said Marc Vlessing at Pocket Living.
“Housing is, and will remain, an issue which will continue to cripple the economy and blight the prospects of a whole generation unless bold and radical action is taken.”
At Moda Living, planning director James Blakey said: “There is an appalling lack of homes for all requirements and tenures in the UK at the moment. We want to see a housing minister who understands and has a passion for resolving the acute housing crisis in the UK. We need a minister that will stay in the post long term so that they can implement plans and then see them through to maturity to ensure their success. The rapid turnover of housing ministers has been hugely damaging to the sector’s progress.”
Planning is another priority. Richard Stonehouse, head of residential capital markets at Avison Young, wants the next PM to focus on “reducing red tape around planning and energising the planning system”. The system is “clearly in need of some fundamental reform that brings forward homes and a cohesive policy that sits behind it”, he added.
Henry Boot chief executive Tim Roberts also urged the next PM to push forward with simplifying the planning system, as well as improving transport across the country.
“For me, levelling up and, in particular, a dramatic scaling up of devolution and a big improvement in our transport networks and planning systems are crucial to powering regeneration and improving equality across the UK,” Roberts said. “We want to see these items at the top of the new prime minister’s in-tray.”
To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@eg.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @EGPropertyNews
Additional reporting by Akanksha Soni
