It was therefore refreshing to hear shadow Labour housing minister Emma Reynolds, speaker at a Savills and Chartered Institute of Housing seminar this week, listen to sector concerns about instability at the top.

'Churn is not helpful. My impression is that Ed Miliband - and we need to win a majority for this - will keep people in place and hopefully we will be in place for a bit longer than was sometimes the case before,' she said.

Reynolds' appearance at the seminar marked her first major speech since this month's [October] publication of the Lyons Housing Review - a meaty 174-page report setting out Labour's plans in England for tackling the housing crisis.

What was really interesting about Reynolds' speech was how open and honest she was, and prepared to engage. It was a relief to see that we weren't in the old kind of combative role that Labour sometimes adopts in relation to industry. That creates a lot of excitement in the sector as to how we may solve the housing crisis.

And there are some new ideas on how to do that from Labour, thanks to Lyons. Those of us in real estate will be particularly interested in the recommendations around bringing forward public land for development. There are some innovative ideas about partnerships, such as encouraging government departments to strike deals with housing associations and developers in which the public sector retains a stake in the land.

Reynolds also made some interesting points about rent, emphasising that some media reports of Labour advocating 'rent controls' were misrepresentative. Rather, Labour recommends three-year tenancies with market-led ceilings for annual rent rises. It does frighten the horses when the words 'rent control' are mentioned and so it was useful she reassured on that.

There is also potential cheer for small to medium-sized house builders. Reynolds revealed that she and shadow Treasury colleague Chris Leslie last week met with lenders to discuss allowing SMEs access to lower-cost funding backed by government. Support to that sector is very, very helpful.

Having spoken to a number of people about the Lyons report there is, though, one aspect that has been slightly missed out: funding. We need to work towards quantifying what the numbers may be, because when one is competing against other potential budgets we need to understand what trade offs may be required.

Overall though, Labour has made an exciting contribution to the debate.


Robert Grundy
Head of housing, Savills.

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