Guest Blog: Harriet Pask, Director of Communication - Quintain
‘UK Real Estate - The Year Ahead: 2025’ - Key Sectors | Investment | Development Opportunities | Future Growth
The truth universally acknowledged by those in attendance at this morning’s wonderful breakfast at The Savoy, was that January is, in actual fact, 100 days long. As January finally draws to a close and our mornings are becoming a little lighter, it was fitting that we were gathered for conversation and presentations focusing on growth and positivity.
Thrive in ’25!
Welcomed by Leigh Salter and David Jennings who - as Bridget Jones would say - are the best in the business at ‘introducing people with thoughtful detail’. Everyone has a story, an introduction to enable conversation and lasting professional connectivity. 200 in attendance and in the networking pre-event I saw no one standing alone.
Opening the event was Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor – Planning, Regen. & Fire Services for the GLA. Meeting the viability challenges London faces head on is the only way the GLA are going to meet the Mayor’s vision for London 2025. Jules said “it’s time to be pragmatic with our next steps as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original London Plan”. Diversification of supply and the ambition to unlock sites with good transport links is the immediate aim. Changes to planning in the UK will enable a review and not before time as not since 1930 have we experienced growth and expansion in London at the same scale as needs to happen over the next few years.
Greenbelt release in a sustainable, careful and thoughtful way together with land swaps are under consideration but the handbrakes being felt by the industry can’t be ignored. Second staircases have slowed development and an under-resourced Building Safety Regulator is halting projects for as long as six months.
Jennet Siebrits, Head of UK Research at CBRE was an engaging and fluent speaker who spoke of the challenges faced in the industry but talked of the fiscal stimulation that will enable true growth. Health and wellbeing are core pillars of sustainability and more companies than ever are aligning their ESG goals with these more people-focused objectives alongside carbon reduction and biodiversity.
Real Estate investment volumes are up 15% this year and research suggests that the city of London is where investors think investments will thrive the most across the UK and Europe.
Cllr Grace Williams, Leader of Waltham Forest Borough Council, Deputy Chair and Executive for Housing + Regeneration reminded the audience that 1 in every 20 children in London is living in temporary accommodation. A hard hitting statistic I have heard from an equally impacted Borough Leader in Brent over the past couple of years. The solution isn’t singular and is complicated but the discussion moved on to be open to public private partnerships which seems to be an approach being truly considered by London boroughs. Joining Cllr Williams were Piers Clanford, COO of Berkeley Group, Jinjie Wang, Director – Life Sciences Lead at Canary Wharf Group, Matthew Steenhoek, Executive Director of Development, Europe at Lendlease, Caroline Edwards, Development Director at Almacantar and the Chair was James Pargeter, Senior Advisor at GAA.
Conversation flowed between the panel, brilliantly put together to discuss the challenges and opportunities our industry faces. With perspectives from the residential, office, retail, life sciences, regeneration and local government sectors, it was felt that better understanding between the inter-related needs and benefits of each real estate element could combine to deliver better places for the future. Panelists agreed that we have a government focused on growth but as an industry let’s focus on growth at a local level to get things moving, feed back to the government the numerous handbrakes felt by developers which together with planning reform can enable a clearer way forward.
