Does real estate need its own James Timpson?

EDITOR’S COMMENT Montagu Evans’ incoming managing partner, Alan Harris, sent my little brain into overdrive this week. Regular readers of my musings here will know I’m always banging on about how the industry needs to be better understood by our government and how we as an industry need to get much better at showcasing what it is that property and the wider built environment does not just for UK plc but for our planet and our people too. So when Harris penned an opinion piece on how radical thinking will be needed to make the right decisions on what to do with the public sector estate and suggested that perhaps a minister responsible for property strategy was needed, my cogs started to whirr. Does real estate need its own James Timpson? Timpson, as you all know, is the former chief executive of the eponymous Timpsons, famed for offering ex-offenders jobs. He was appointed as prisons minister by the new Labour government last month. In Timpson, the party has someone who understands prisons and offenders, and someone who is somewhat apolitical – he had been advising the previous Conservative administration. An expert, focused on the issue, not on political gain. It’s a novel concept, but I like it. What could that look like for real estate, I wonder? Would a property strategy minister be able to take a wider, longer-term look at both public sector property and the role the private sector plays in delivering a built environment for the benefit of the UK populace, the economy and their own bottom lines? Best person for the job? I’ve posed the question on LinkedIn. So far, an overwhelming majority of you think that a property strategy minister should be appointed by Labour – no surprises there – and that he or she should be a real estate expert. Names thrown into the hat as potential candidates include industry veteran Neil Sinclair (put forward by his daughter and biggest fan, Emma), Lord Sugar and former Thriving Investments director Alex Notay. Sugar would be interesting. A businessman first, a long-time property investor, unafraid to call a spade a spade and fire a few people along the way. But is he the right person for the job? Is he the face of real estate we want the general public to identify with? I’m not sure. Notay is equally interesting. Here is a woman – first tick there – who not only has experience in Whitehall as a former civil servant but also understands investment and strategy, and can bring a commercial slant to Labour’s housing ambitions. Liz Peace, too, could surely handle the brief, and former Hammerson executive Mark Bourgeois is already doing some of the job as interim chief executive of the Government Property Agency. No shortage of talent There is an abundance of talent across the real estate sector that Labour and all the other parties could tap into. And while there will undoubtedly be the issue of bias, that drum-banger in me believes there are plenty of people in real estate who could put that bias aside to deliver the best outcome for the country. Whoever it is that fills this imaginary position would need to be in it for the long haul – to deliver a strategy that cuts across parties and delivers over the long term. No flip-flopping between policies and parties, no reforming previous plans just because they’re not your plans. A long-term, well-thought-out, clear and deliverable plan, that everyone commits to. International experience too would be important. Someone who can show us the good, the bad and the ugly from other places around the world. Someone who has lived it – who has got the scars to prove it and wears them proudly. That person must be out there. But for now the job doesn’t exist. That’s not to say it shouldn’t, or couldn’t. And perhaps that is our task as the collective industry. Perhaps it is for us to draw up the job description and showcase the value that such a role would bring to the country. I’m in if you are.