Last week’s Labour Party Conference came just a week after the London Real Estate Forum. The contrast in mood was striking.
At LREF, the mood felt subdued. In many conversations there was a sense that we “just need to hang on”. Housing, particularly in London, is incredibly challenging. Schemes are struggling with viability and the cost of building is approaching or exceeding sales values. And when the private sector cannot build, the affordable housing expected through those developments does not come forward either.
A week later, I headed to Liverpool for a Labour conference few of us would have predicted only months ago. A new Prime Minister, a man who wasn’t even an MP a few months ago, brought with him a sense of reset and optimism. People who had lost their seats in May were already talking about going again. There was a renewed sense of possibility.
For me, Party Conference is also an important place for politics and our industry to come together. It’s a bit like UKREiiF, with fewer gilets, more flags and more ministers. And those ministers are accessible. From breakfast panels to the late-night bar, there is an opportunity to have a conversation.
Wearing several hats as a director of Bell Phillips Architects, RIBA President-Elect and housing campaigner, I see real value in those worlds understanding each other better. If you work in property and haven’t been to a party conference yet, I hope to see you there next year!
Policymakers need to understand the realities of trying to deliver, while industry needs to understand the pressures shaping policy. Whenever I take part in a panel, I try to bring those realities into the room, whether discussing innovation and skills with Andrew Western MP or chairing a conversation about housing delivery with Chris Curtis MP.
Housing was certainly front and centre. Every Labour Housing Group session I attended was packed. That tells us something. Housing affects everybody. We all need a home, many cannot afford one, and many of us at conference are also trying to work out how we build enough of them.
Then came Andy Burnham’s speech.
Housing was not a side note. It was at the beginning of a much bigger rebuilding project.
There was plenty of policy: council housebuilding, Right to Buy reform, action on empty and poor-quality homes, Everyone In, Your First Home and leasehold reform. All wrapped into the political argument that a decent home is the foundation from which health, opportunity and aspiration follow.
Perhaps more significantly, I sensed a shift away from the assumption that the private sector alone can deliver the homes the country needs. When viability breaks down and the private sector stops building, so does much of our housing supply.
Instead, there was a sense of shared responsibility: government taking a more active role, councils building again, and public and private investment working alongside housing associations, developers and the wider industry. A recognition that neither can solve the housing crisis alone.
It was also a deeply human speech, grounded in the issues that affect people’s everyday lives. And it seemed to resonate well beyond the conference hall and beyond Liverpool.
Of course, the question I seem to come away asking every year remains: how?
As an architect, I inevitably think of this as a building project. You need a vision, investment upfront and different disciplines working together. The real value is often only visible years later.
The challenges facing our industry haven’t disappeared. A conference speech doesn’t solve viability. But after a week at LREF where the message often seemed to be “hang on”, Liverpool felt different.
There was a sense of direction and renewed optimism.
Now comes the much harder part: turning that optimism into homes.
