Housing will rightly play a major part in this election, but there are other crucial issues surrounding property – in transport, tax and planning – that all political parties must consider urgently. Here, then is our SEGRO Manifesto for 2015:
1: Chaos above southern England before Christmas as a result of a systems failure at the UK’s air traffic controller, NATS, was a reminder that Britain’s aviation infrastructure needs an urgent overhaul. But it was no more alarming than the continuing failure to provide London with extra runway capacity.
As a major landowner and warehouse provider in and around London’s airports, SEGRO has an interest in seeing both Heathrow and Gatwick expand, but we believe the economic arguments in favour of Heathrow’s expansion are overwhelming. Only Heathrow can connect us to the emerging overseas markets where most growth will come over the coming decade. Whichever government is elected,
they will soon be in receipt of Sir Howard Davies’ recommendations. We need Sir Howard and the next government to take some brave decisions on airport capacity and commit to the expansion of Heathrow at the earliest opportunity.
2: London’s population will pass its 1939 peak of 8.6m any day, so finding homes for all these people will be crucial. But amid the clamour to house London’s growing population we must also remember that there was a 46% reduction in industrial land in the capital between 1984 and 2012. An industrial city has become a city of homes, offices and shops, but the limit has been reached.
There is little point in providing thousands of new homes if people have nowhere nearby to work, or the warehousing and industrial space to enable goods and services to be delivered efficiently is not there.
From London to Liverpool, Manchester to Glasgow, Bristol to Leeds, the planning system has to recognise that industrial property is a core part of UK infrastructure, and that it underpins our recovering manufacturing base and the evolving needs of our cities.
3: The scrapping of empty rates relief continues to stifle industrial development. If government wants to encourage business it has to give companies the space to grow. The property industry is crying out for a fairer business rates system. For industrial property, empty rates relief should be restored for two years after a speculative development’s completion and for one after a void is created.
4: January sales were almost a non-event for the first time in living memory, with November’s Black Friday and December’s Cyber Monday shifting the whole sales process forward. At the same time, food retail world is going through a period of unprecedented change. Fashion retail is also changing fundamentally, with retailers as big as Marks & Spencer rethinking their supply chains.
But can the planning system keep up? Urban logistics’ operations on the edge of town, distributing goods locally after they have been distributed from large centralised mega-sheds now need to operate around the clock to satisfy rapidly growing demand.
Too many planning battles hinge on parking restrictions and travel plans. Our wish? For the department of Communities & Local Government and the Greater London Authority to produce supplementary planning guidance advising on the requirements of urban logistics, and the jobs potential it provides.
5: Our final wish is for sensible economic management. It is crucial that cuts to government spending are balanced with the need to maintain public services, and it is also vital that monetary policy remains accommodative and interest rates low while the economy is given time to recover fully. In other words, don’t scare the horses.
It is also vital that the government does not tamper with stamp duty on commercial property. Extending the new stamp duty regime on homes to large-scale commercial property transactions would have a devastating impact on inward real estate investment.
The outcome of the 2015 election has the potential to make or break the UK economy and will be fundamental for the fortunes of the property world – let’s hope all parties listen to business.
David Sleath is chief executive of SEGRO
