Labour’s landslide on Thursday may have stopped the majority of property-minded candidates getting seats in the new Parliament, but the industry will have some new supporters in the Commons.
Mark Simmonds, a former director of national retail agency at CB Hillier Parker, has said that he intends to continue in his position as partner of surveyors firm Mortlock Simmonds when he starts at the House of Commons this week.
Simmonds, elected on Thursday as Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness with a majority of 515 votes (1.3%), has promised that he will campaign for property to have a louder voice in Parliament.
“I’m very keen to support the property industry,” he told EGi. “There are lots of things that need to be addressed – stamp duty, for example. The increases under the Labour Government during the last four years have really damaged the investment market. I want to make the Government realise that property is an investment asset and not just an extension of the residential housing market,” he said.
Other new MPs with property pasts are:
- Ian Liddell-Grainger, once a director of a property development company in the North-West, now Conservative MP for Bridgwater
- Mark Prisk, a former surveyor with Knight Frank, now Conservative MP for Hertford and Stortford
- Neil Turner, formerly a quantity surveyor with AMEC, now Labour MP for Wigan
EGi News 11/06/01
