EGi takes a look at how candidates from the property world will fare in this week’s general election.
The property industry could have a few more supporters in the House of Commons after 7 June, if a batch of property-minded candidates get elected.
Among the thousands of candidates standing for the 659 seats, EGi has tracked down a handful of hopefuls with property pasts.
Ian Liddell-Grainger, a former director of North Eastern Investment Trust, a group of property management and development companies based in Newcastle, will contest the marginal Conservative Bridgwater seat, following the retirement of Tory MP Tom King. Despite a threat from the Liberal Democrats, he is likely to win on 7 June.
Another Conservative candidate likely to take a seat after the election is Mark Simmonds, a former director at Hillier Parker. Simmonds is contesting a relatively safe seat called Boston and Skegness. He is a partner in Mortlock Simmonds, a firm of chartered surveyors based in Hanover Street.
Mark Prisk is also likely to enter the House of Commons as the Conservative candidate for Hertford and Stortford, a comparatively safe seat. Prisk started in Knight Frank as a graduate surveyor before moving on to Derrick Wade & Waters, where he later became manager of the London office.
Another former surveyor expected to enter the Commons is Labour candidate Neil Turner, who previously worked as a quantity surveyor for construction firm AMEC. Turner is standing in the Labour safe-seat of Wigan, following the retirement of Roger Stott MP, where Labour received 68.6% of the vote in 1997.
Christian Sweeting will face harder opposition. The former Hillier Parker surveyor is contesting Torbay for the Conservatives, where the Liberal Democrats won in 1997 by just 12 votes, partly due to the UK Independent Party splitting the Euro-sceptic vote. Torbay is one of the most marginal seats in the country, and is second on the Conservatives ‘wish-list’, after Winchester.
Sweeting said: “It is a bit of a challenge, but our canvas returns are pretty good – they’re better than our council elections last May when we got 32 out of 36 seats.”
It was feared that Sweeting’s brush with the law in April, after he defended his home with a 30-year-old air rifle, might damage his chances. But it seems to have worked in his favour. “The charges were completely dropped, and since I’ve had over 600 letters of support. I don’t think many people could complain about defending one’s property with an unloaded rifle.”
After leaving Hillier Parker Sweeting became a director of London and Central European Investments, which focuses on property investment. “Hillier Parker was a good company, and I had some very good colleagues,” he said. “Naturally I would seek to promote the property industry. We’ve got a very good industry, but it has been badly affected by such things as stamp duty, which is effectively reducing the value of property in actuarial terms. But property hasn’t been a priority in this election. If Europe is 11th in the order of people’s priorities, then property is probably a lot further down on the list.”
However, most of the property candidates are standing as Conservatives and the general tide may be against them in marginal seats. John Flack, a former chartered surveyor, will be hoping to turn around Labour’s tight lead of 3.4% in one of the election’s fiercest battlegrounds – Enfield Southgate. The previously safe Tory seat was taken from under the nose of Michael Portillo in 1997 by New Labour’s Stephen Twigg.
A similar scenario will be played out in Carshalton and Wallington, where Ken Andrew, formally the director of N&P Building Society, will need to beat a Liberal Democrat majority of around 5%.
But several MPs with property backgrounds are expected to keep their seats in the Commons. Tory darling Iain Duncan Smith, a former director of Bellwing Property, is expected to ride to victory on Thursday, as is Labour’s Ken Purchese, who formally headed the property division of Telford Development Corporation. MP for Tunbridge Wells and shadow spokesman on DETR Archie Norman, better known in the property world as the co-owner of Knutsford and former chairman of Asda, will also retain his seat.
Conservative MPs John Butterfill and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who were both surveyors with Jones Lang Wootton, should also have no problems retaining their majorities, and may be joined by a few more surveyors on the Conservative benches.
EGi News 05/06/01
