How the property sector is responding to the election of Liz Truss as prime minister

According to leaders in the built environment, Truss needs to hit the ground running if she is to fulfil her campaign promise to double down on levelling up the country.

Liz Truss was the favourite to win the top government spot and she did. During the Conservative Party leadership contest, Sunak got 60,399 votes.

300,000 new homes would be built every year in the UK if she were elected. She said she would bring back the Northern Powerhouse Rail project and build the high-speed rail line between Manchester and Leeds.

Planning priorities

Victoria Hills, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said that the key to achieving the new Prime Minister’s goals was planning reform. According to a recent report, local authorities have reduced spending on planning in the last 10 years.

Liz Truss promised to double down on levelling up and spark a new industrial revolution during her campaign for Prime Minister. If she wants to achieve her goals, she will need to make immediate progress with planning reform in her first weeks in office.

Hills stated that planners cannot be expected to do more with less.

In a time of high inflation, we need a timely responsive planning service, but this can only be achieved if it is properly resourced.

Local authorities have to improve residents’ lives by planning. Communities will miss opportunities to level up, deliver vital housing, improve health outcomes, and tackle climate change without better quality planning services.

Danny is the director of urbanism at Broadway Malyan.

It is not known what will happen to Boris’s promised “Levelling Up” under the new leadership. In the current climate of soaring costs and high inflation, a new-look government can support the growth of local jobs and the recovery of city and town centre commerce by taking up the mantle of community-led urban regeneration.

“Truss must focus on where the British people live, work and play for this to work.”

While the high street has suffered a decline in recent years, a new system of regional planning control could mark the foundation on which our most disaffected regions are rebuilt.

Housing must be a focus

The lack of homes in the country is the subject of a proposal by James Blakey, the planning director at Moda Living.

“Now that the new Prime Minister has been announced, we hope to see Liz Truss work with the UK residential sector to address the appalling lack of suitable homes in the UK across the spectrum of tenures, requirements and price points.”

The government must more enthusiastically embrace professionally managed, institutionally funded rental living products such as build-to-rent or single-family housing in order to address the shortage of rental homes in particular.

It can relieve the pressure on the UK rental market with more support.

James Hyman, head of residential, felt that housing was a priority.

In order to alleviate the UK’s housing shortage, the government should look at reinstating tax allowances and incentives for private landlords to encourage them back into the market.

Lack of supply is the main reason why rents have gone up so quickly over the last two years, as many private landlords have been forced to exit the market due to the government no longer making it viable to be a private landlord.

To help meet the country’s current housing supply requirements, the new Prime Minister needs to address the huge post-pandemic, planning consent problem within local authorities.

Transport is key

The head of the North West at Jones Lang Lasalle said that the focus needs to be on transport.

Businesses in the North West will be hoping that the confirmation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister signals a return to the priorities set out in 2019.

Firms in the region need to see a strong commitment to investing in the region’s public transport system, especially at a time when connections to the capital are under strain, but they will also be hoping Andy Burnham is given more

Will we see true progress on the levelling up agenda if we don’t engage with and listen to the business and civic leaders in the North West?

The environment cannot wait

Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, stated that green reform in the form of a retrofit strategy needs to be at the top of the agenda.

Over 12 million households are facing fuel poverty in the UK, Berry said.

This dire situation requires an immediate commitment to a long-term national retrofit plan to insulate our 29 million homes to cut energy consumption and reduce bills.

He said that Liz Truss has a chance to transform existing homes to make sure everyone has a place to heat.

A national retrofit strategy can help create thousands of new jobs and deliver growth in every village, town, and city. The energy crisis needs a green revolution, so I am looking to Liz Truss to deliver.

Breaking point

The time is right for Truss to unite the Conservative Party and deliver on the previous administration’s levelling up policies, according to the chief executive.

“Levelling up featured in neither candidates’ campaigns and reneging on promises to ‘level up’ left-behind towns and cities is the perfect recipe for distrust and disillusionment,” he said.

The end of the Conservatives’ 12-year reign could be marked by the creation of a disconnection between politicians and voters.

The Conservative Party must heal the rifts created by the leadership battle but now must have an eye on the larger picture. The trust of the nation is at risk if the government is not focused on levelling up.