COMMENT As I began writing this, one ear was listening in to Money-Bags Rishi as he pulled some more billions from a pocket in one of his favourite hoodies.
Oh great, I thought, there will be plenty here for me to write about. And there is. An infrastructure bank, a £4bn levelling-up fund to be spent on regional infrastructure – digital as well as physical, £254m to help find beds for the rising numbers of rough sleepers on our streets and some more money to build even more houses (Listen to the Broken Homes podcast on the EG Property Podcast if you want to understand why building more homes isn’t the solution to the housing problem).
Government has spent £280bn on the “fight” against Covid-19 since the country first shut down in March. And it will spend £55bn more next year. We’ve spent and spent and spent at, in Rishi’s own words, “unsustainable” levels. We’ve spent so much that underlying debt will be 97.5% of GDP in 2025-26. We’ve spent in a bid to protect the economy and yet we are set to see the biggest drop in output in more than 300 years.
Those kinds of figures are frightening. The climb out of this period in time is going to be long and it is going to be hard.
I do believe that continuing good news on vaccines will kickstart us into action. That once we all start getting jabs we will start to operate like we used to, we will start to recover. But boy oh boy is there going to be a lot of cleaning up to do.
We are going to have to work hard to cut costs but deliver more all at the same time. We will need to find new jobs for people as we rebuild or replace industries that have been decimated by Covid. We will need to work hard to make sure the UK does not become an island in a post-Covid, post-Brexit world. We will need to work hard in delivering on this government’s goals to be a world leader in the new green economy.
We will need to roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty and work together to tackle the challenges ahead.
But if there is one industry that can do that, it has to be real estate. Real estate is an industry that can provide those jobs. It is going through a transformation that is creating new roles and seeing existing roles recalibrated. Real estate is an industry that knows how to attract investment. It is an industry that knows how to sell, knows how to build relationships across the globe.
And real estate is an industry that can definitely help deliver on the country’s green ambitions. See how real estate’s net zero commitment can be a real fillip for investment values and the attractiveness of the UK built environment to global corporates and investors.
The time is now to heed former chancellor Philip Hammond’s advice and for real estate to come together to showcase to government how it can help rebuild the UK and its finances.
Talking of coming together and rebuilding, EG has launched a fresh hunt for its next round of Future Leaders. We are looking for a dozen superstars that may be hidden in plain sight.
We want 12 people to join this award-winning programme from underrepresented groups in real estate to help us in our ambition to change the face of real estate through inspiration, truth, leadership and courage.
If you are or know someone who you believe has a powerful story to share and the makings of real estate’s next greatest leader, we would love to hear from you. Enter here www.egi.co.uk/futureleaders
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
