Lord Bob Kerslake must be exactly the kind of critic government does not want. The kind who knows what he is talking about from years spent at the coal face.
A lifetime of public service began at the Greater London Council and Hounslow council before Kerslake became chief executive of Sheffield City Council, then chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency. From there he was permanent secretary of the department for communities and local government and head of the civil service under David Cameron. These days, Kerslake’s myriad roles include heading up the UK 2070 Commission, an independent inquiry on regional inequality.
So people tend to listen when Kerslake speaks – and he has a lot to say, including adding his voice to calls for a quicker start to the public inquiry into Covid; warning of a risk that government’s levelling up policy will become a ”joke” unless it quickly defines its objectives; and calling for reform of the way advisers to government departments are appointed in the wake of the Matt Hancock scandal.
And now the crossbench peer, who also chairs the Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation and housing association Peabody, has the UK development sector firmly in his sights.
“I think government perhaps haven’t fully understood how development could help with their recovery agenda and with the levelling up agenda,” he says.
“We need to signal the importance of real estate in this country as part of the economy. It’s important for business, but it’s actually important for the public sector as well, because it’s part of how we grow – economic growth, new jobs, new homes. So it’s part of inclusive growth as well as being part of the commercial business sector.”
Kerslake is pleased that government has appointed Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, as levelling up adviser and is preparing a white paper. “I think it will move things on,” he says. “I’ve worried for a while about the lack of definition and hopefully now we can improve on that.”
Public-private partnerships
It’s not just government that overlooks the potential of development, Kerslake says. The public too is often unaware of how development can help change lives.
“When they think of development, they tend to think of it as being about exclusive offices or high-rise flats, but in reality development is also about genuinely improving places to the benefit of everyone,” he adds.
For Kerslake, good, sustainable, inclusive development benefiting a wide range of people tends to happen through public-private partnership – such as Peabody’s partnership with Berkeley Homes to deliver 1,750 homes in West Thamesmead, SE28.
“If you’ve got those collaborative ventures, as we do in Peabody with Berkeley and others, then you can ensure that the development isn’t just great looking, but genuinely works for those on low incomes, as well as those who are on high incomes,” he says. “That’s when you get real success.”
He wants to see more ventures like this outside of the capital and the major regional cities too, in so-called “left behind” towns.
“I know it’s possible because I’ve seen some great developments in towns as well,” he says. Indeed, as chair of the first mayoral development corporation to focus on a town centre, Kerslake has been closely involved in the ongoing £1bn regeneration of Stockport town centre.
The MDC has already delivered a business hub at Stockport Exchange, a leisure destination at Red Rock and serviced apartments and offices at The Mailbox.
Talk, then action
A belief in the untapped potential of property and development to be part of the UK’s economic recovery and growth post-Covid is one of the reasons Kerslake has agreed to get involved in a new industry event attracting big names from across the public and private sectors.
The UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum is the brainchild of Keith Griffiths, managing director of Built Environment Networking, and will hold its first annual event in Leeds on 17-19 May 2022 with up to 3,000 attendees. Griffiths is also looking at ways to facilitate remote access for overseas participants.
Kerslake is chair of the advisory board shaping the content of the UKREiiF event. He has been closely associated with the Labour Party over the years, but he is a master at working with those of all political persuasions and none – as evidenced in the make-up of a parliamentary advisory group he is putting together to add weight to the event (see panel).
“This is an opportunity to be part of the recovery post-Covid and to make sure that real estate and property is part of that economic growth story,” he says. “Secondly, to signal that good investment opportunities in the UK are still there – notwithstanding Brexit.”
If you’ve got those collaborative ventures, then you can ensure that the development isn’t just great looking, but genuinely works for those on low incomes, as well as those who are on high incomes
Kerslake has been a regular attender of MIPIM in Cannes for many years in different guises, stretching back to before he became chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency in 2008, pausing when he was a government official from 2010-2014 and returning through his roles with Stockport and with Barking and Dagenham council’s regeneration arm BeFirst. UKREiiF will not compete with MIPIM, he says, but be “a different kind of event”, one that he expects to have a renewed focus on the environment and inclusivity and one that he hopes will have a more diverse attendance – “across age groups, across gender, across ethnicity” – than other real estate events.
The British Property Federation has offered its support. Ghislaine Halpenny, the BPF’s director of strategy and external affairs at the British Property Federation, sees it as an opportunity to give a greater voice to SMEs in a sector where larger developers and major housebuilders tend to monopolise.
Driving an inclusive culture within the property industry must also go much further than the attendance list, Kerslake says. It is about the range of content and the kind of projects the event will foster.
“We want to ensure we cover sustainability properly, cover diversity properly, that we have genuinely diverse panels,” Kerslake adds.
And, crucially, it will champion the potential of “good development”.
“I’ve been involved in regeneration in Sheffield and other places, and absolutely, our aim is both to improve the physical environment, increase the business opportunities, but also increase the opportunities for those who’ve previously not benefited from growth. An inclusive approach,” he says.
How will UKREiiF measure its own success? “I would like to see action,” says event founder Griffiths. “And I would like to see results from the public sector opportunities being matched with investors and economic growth created.”
The event must live up to its own standards on diversity and sustainability, and Griffiths has enlisted Pagabo, a specialist in procurement, to measure the social value of the event.
Kerslake wants it to become “a new forum for debate and action” as the industry makes its voice heard. With that message coming from Kerslake, people are bound to sit up and listen.
To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGJuliaC or @EGPropertyNews
