EDITOR’S COMMENT Trust. Hard to gain. Really easy to lose. It is something that we take incredibly seriously here at EG. We have spent coming up to 165 years building trust in this sector. Trust with the people we speak to on a daily basis so they know they can share what’s going on in the market with us. Trust with our customers that we will deliver what we promise. Trust that we will support and challenge the sector, always, and enable it to perform its role well.
Trust was the big topic of debate at this week’s Chapman Barrigan lecture, a series of lectures held in memory of two of the sector’s most excellent practitioners – urban planning legend Honor Chapman and private equity doyenne Trish Barrigan.
Liz Peace, former chief executive of the British Property Federation and current chair of Real Estate Balance and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, delivered the powerful keynote. With business now being trusted more by the public than government, she said, real estate has a real chance to do something about its reputation.
We all know the figures. Trust in the sector is low. Single-digit low. Lower perhaps than trust that a Fox (or maybe even BBC) journalist is going to give you unbiased reporting.
It is bad. But it really shouldn’t be. As Peace said in her speech, real estate is pervasive in society. It touches everything, which gives the sector the most unique opportunity to make an impression – good or bad.
But still this sector is plagued by a lack of understanding, it is – as real-life responses in Real Estate Balance’s NextGen survey reveal – a secret sector. This ignorance, this secrecy, does nothing for the sector. How on earth can we show the role that the built environment has in making this world a better, more prosperous and more equitable place if no-one knows it or understands it?
How can that be, though? If real estate touches everything we do, if consultation plays such a big part in this industry – probably more than any other – why are we not getting the message across?
Hurrah to Liz Peace for saying what we all know is true. Just like if we want any government to really deliver for this country, we need cross-party alignment, collaboration and effort, so too do we need that across the hugely wide, powerful and fascinating world that is the built environment.
“We need a genuine pan-industry alliance to agree a programme of awareness raising, of public presentation and of unrelenting advocacy and education,” said Peace to the room full of willing listeners at Goldman Sachs’ HQ.
Yes! We need an alliance. We need a single voice, not dozens of them. We need an educator for the general public, for every kid and parent up and down this country – and beyond – to understand the built environment. How does it work? Who does what? Who can I talk to if I don’t like something? Who can I talk to if I do like something? Who will listen to me and hear my thoughts?
This is how we build trust and establish a reputation of which to be proud.
Peace proposes some sort of enforcement organisation – a proper one. She proposes a co-ordinated approach, properly funded, that holds those who behave badly to account. Properly. None of that optimism bias we have talked about here before. One bad apple never exists. Rot spreads.
Trust really is hard to gain. But it can be secured. It takes authenticity, it takes genuine care about your product, who your product serves and delivering for your customers.
I see, in so many of the people I have the phenomenal opportunity to interact with on a daily basis, a desire to deliver great service for all stakeholders. There is now, more than ever before, the willingness to build trust.
But it will be worthless if that trust is only built in individual companies. We need people to buy into the built environment brand and to trust that while, like all of us, it will always have its faults, it is a positive contributor to people, the planet and our economy. Equally and authentically.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews
