COMMENT Belief, rather than bare facts, underscores so many debates these days. In real estate, few will be surprised to see it played out on news bulletin after news bulletin; trust, and its absence, has already been a headline issue in this sector for too long.
On Wednesday morning, at separate events in London, it was front and centre.
At Grosvenor’s HQ in Mayfair, the British Property Federation was discussing the findings of its latest annual property industry sentiment survey. For the first time, the poll of property investors and advisers asked about trust in real estate.
The majority of respondents did not believe public trust in the UK’s planning system (85%) or real estate industry (75%) is “strong”. And if that’s investors and advisers, imagine how much larger that proportion would be if you were to ask the wider public.
At the same time, a few streets away, at the Royal Institution, the Edelman Trust Barometer was being launched with Tony Blair. (I’ll give you a moment to insert your own joke there.)
The PR adviser has polled the views of thousands of people around the world and, as you might expect, reached some pretty miserable conclusions: in the survey’s own words, “Brexit has broken our faith in government, politics and politicians.”
So far, so gloomy. But a glimmer of hope was offered – one that dovetails nicely with the BPF research. Because the Edelman barometer shows that where trust lingers it is with employers.
With chaos reigning in Westminster, the public is looking to business to fill the shortcomings of government. More than three in four Brits believe CEOs should take the lead on change rather than waiting for the government to impose it – a belief that’s up 19 percentage points from 2018. As strikingly, three in four say they trust their employer to do what is right, which is considerably higher than any other institutional relationship in the UK today.
Less than 24 hours later, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland chief executive Craig McWilliam took to the stage at the Building London Summit. “At Grosvenor, like many property companies, we have failed to tell our story in clear enough ways,” he said. “We accept that we need to change to grow public trust.”
McWilliam then committed his business to an experiment: “We will take our plans for a new development and throw ourselves open to public opinion – so we better explain ourselves, seek a wider range of views and cede control.”
He is promising to open Grosvenor up to “scrutiny and new ideas” and to launch “the largest-ever canvassing of public views on trust in placemaking. Shaped by conversations with the industry and politicians, we will take the question of trust to the public.”
McWilliam isn’t alone in recognising the need to change what he characterises as an “oppositional debate”. It’s one that’s not unique to London but it is at its most visible there – from Elephant & Castle to Earl’s Court, from Haringey to Bermondsey, where Southwark Council officers have recommended the rejection of Grosvenor’s plans for 1,300 homes on the grounds that they would not be affordable enough.
It’s clear to McWilliam, and dawning on others, that this sort of attritional, costly and time-consuming debate is in no one’s interests.
And perhaps for the first time in years there is an opportunity for real estate to pivot from being seen as part of the problem to being part of the solution, and to begin to win back trust.
To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@egi.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @estatesgazette
