Queen's Speech 2021: RICS response

This year’s Queen’s Speech takes place against a backdrop of a global pandemic that has caused significant uncertainty and upheaval throughout the world during the past 18 months. As a global organisation, RICS recognises the impact which COVID-19 has had for individuals and organisations within the built environment too. As the UK continues to ease its COVID-19 restrictions over the coming months, this year’s Queen’s Speech sees the UK Government return its focus to its legislative priorities, and how it intends to build back better from the pandemic.

We welcome the announcement that the Building Safety Bill that was published in draft last year will be introduced in this new parliamentary session. The Bill will seek to bring about essential reforms to the building and fire safety system in England following the tragic loss of life in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. Since that time, RICS has been working tirelessly on a national and international basis to improve fire safety, including through the formation of an international coalition with over 80 other bodies backed by the UN which has created International Fire Safety Standards.

The Building Safety Bill will create a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within the Health and Safety Executive to oversee specifically all high-rise buildings, as well as all other buildings through oversight of the building control profession. The creation of this new regulator is a positive development, and we will be engaging constructively with them to help protect public safety and champion the public interest. The creation of three new statutory roles in England of a Principal Designer, Principal Contractor and Building Safety Manager are another welcome addition, though we recognise that Building Safety Manager will be a new role and that delivering the necessary training, competence and accreditation will therefore be crucial. We are supportive of the requirement for all those working on high-rise residential buildings to have third party accreditation of competence, which includes training provision. By championing a new process of safety case reviews at the three Gateways for approval, the Bill will also help to ensure careful evaluation of the safety of new high-risk buildings through all stages of their construction.

RICS believes that the voice of residents must continue to be heard and it is vital that they have a say on issues of safety. The issue of flammable cladding has been an ongoing concern for many since the time of the Grenfell Tower fire, and we welcomed the Government’s announcement in February of additional funding for cladding removal in all qualifying residential buildings over 18m in height. We will continue to support measures which remediate unsafe cladding and work with the government to tackle these challenges head on.

The UK Government announced in January that a new bill would be introduced in this session which would set future ground rents to zero among other reforms. While RICS is supportive of the Government’s aims to reduce bureaucracy for leaseholders and to make the process of extending a lease fairer and cheaper, we believe that the detail of these specific reforms and the impact which they will each have for leaseholders and for freeholders will need careful consideration.

The Government has set out plans today to reform renters’ rights. In principle, we welcome the decision to abolish section 21 but it is important to ensure that we avoid any unintended consequences such as greater reluctance by lenders to approve ‘buy to let’ mortgages.

RICS recognises that there is a general desire from developers and communities to see greater certainty and streamlining within the planning system at all levels, from plan making to development management and infrastructure funding.

We are supportive of the aspirations of the current planning reforms but their objectives will need to be deliverable on the ground across the country to restore community confidence in the planning process and reduce the ‘planning risk’ for those who are seeking to carry out development.

It is crucial however that any expansion of Permitted Development Rights, which could mean many commercial units up to a certain size being converted to residential units without planning permission, does not compromise on quality or safety. Location should be a key consideration in the development of new residential units too. While RICS envisages that in some locations there is likely to be less reliance on pure retail and office-based high streets in the future, it is important that an appropriate balance is struck between the needs of the residential and commercial sectors in order to help preserve the character of our high streets and town centres.

The focus on ‘levelling up’ in this year’s Queen’s Speech and the Government’s recently announced Levelling Up Fund demonstrate a clear recognition of the importance of local infrastructure projects across the UK. RICS is supportive of efforts to develop infrastructure that promotes the economic and social wellbeing of local communities. Our vision for the future places a strong emphasis on sustainability, and the need to need to promote positive outcomes for the built and natural environment.

As the UK looks set to begin its gradual recovery from the pandemic, it is essential that we not only build back better from COVID-19 but that we build back greener too. The Environment Bill commits the government to achieving legally binding emission targets. In housing, an ambitious programme of work to promote retrofitting throughout the UK should be a high priority for UK and devolved governments. This would significantly improve home energy efficiency for consumers and reduce fuel poverty while helping to ensure that the UK can meet it future net zero carbon ambitions.

RICS is disappointed that during a year when the UK hosts COP26, there remains a significant taxation bias in housing towards building new, rather than creating an existing greener housing stock. At present new build properties enjoy a VAT holiday, while decarbonisation and energy improvement work on existing homes remains fully applicable to VAT. Research by RICS and the Federation of Master Builders shows that a cut to 5% for home improvement work would generate an additional £25 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) across the economy and support an additional 345,000 jobs.