RICS response to Labour National Policy Forum Consultation 2023

The RICS has responded to the Labour Party’s call for evidence through the National Policy Forum (NPF) 2023. Our response to the consultation was informed by the Public Affairs and Government Affairs team, using the broad insight and expertise of RICS members.

The Labour Party’s NPF consultation for 2023 touched on themes, such as green growth, international trade, local and national empowerment and support for families. Below is further information on each of these areas of focus:

• Delivering growth
• The everyday economy
  
• Empowered communities
  
• Prevention, early intervention and better public services for all
  
• Supporting families
  
• Labour's progressive trade policy

We will see monumental societal change over the next decade, brought on by rapid technological advances, changing demographics, new attitudes to work, and external shocks, such as climate change. This presents a challenge, but also an opportunity, and as such the NPF consultations are important for RICS to engage with, given the relevant themes discussed. Our submissions will inform the next stage of Labour’s policy development process as they move towards developing the Party’s manifesto.

This year, we responded to Labour’s consultations on a Green and Digital Future, a Future Where Families Come First and Britain in the World, with the key themes from our responses outlined below.

Sustainability & Technology

Sustainability is a common thread throughout Labour’s NPF consultations, and across our responses we emphasised our key policy asks and work in this area. For example, we highlighted the finding from our 2022 Sustainability Report, which found that a substantial proportion of our members (around 50%), identified lack of established standards, tools, databases, benchmarks, and guidance as one of the key obstacles to effectively reducing carbon emissions.

Big data is a key facet of carbon management; as such, we implored Labour to investigate the work that RICS and its partners are doing in this space. Here, we highlighted the suite of sustainability programmes we have developed with the aim of tracking and limiting carbon – both embodied and emitted – in the built environment, including ICMS3 and the Whole Life Carbon Assessment.

Housing

The built environment looks set to have a challenging 2023, with inflation, material supply and labour pressures continuing to impact the sector. On top of this, there is the essential need to keep focused on addressing the causes of climate change, including decarbonisation and energy efficiency.

In response to Labour’s consultation: A Future Where Families Come First, we raised our call to reinstate the housebuilding target, which has direct links with the need for planning authorities to maintain a five-year land supply. We also emphasised the need to action the recommendations from the RICS Decarbonising UK Real Estate on energy measurement and EPCs.

Transport

The UK lags behind comparable countries in the provision of high-speed rail networks and while we welcome rail investment, such as HS2, upgrading and modernising our transport networks provides a chance to connect and level-up underinvested areas of the UK; indeed, greater links between major economic centres will provide a boost to trade, investment and economic activity.

Within our response, we highlighted the work of our Dispute Resolution Service, who could play a key role in the construction and infrastructure space when disputes arise.

International Trade

On Labour’s international trade plans, we highlighted the integral role that the chartered surveying profession has as a key source of UK competitive advantage and reputation on the global stage. We emphasised RICS professionals and RICS’ internationally renowned standards, which culminates with the publication of The Red Book, our commitment to promote and support high standards in valuation delivery worldwide. This was also an opportunity to highlight our wider work to ensure quality, cost, and carbon management, as well as manage global pressures and ensure ethical standards.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI)

DEI also featured prominently across Labour’s NPF consultations. Here we identified that more needs to be done across the built environment to provide support and training to increase the participation of those from a protected group, as well as those from certain socio-economic backgrounds. Opportunities to create diverse workforces through new routes, such as international trade, digital technology, new working practices should be embraced and not ignored.

We have called for more diversity from across the built environment, and key membership bodies have come together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to drive forward the creation of a more diverse, equitable and inclusive sector - ensuring it is more representative of the society it serves.

Addressing our submissions and the challenges the RICS is looking to address in the future, Phil Clark MRICS, Chair of the RICS Commercial Property Forum said: “The next decade will witness unprecedented change for our society. The climate is changing, the power of AI with the digitalisation of our lives is become ever clearer, ever greater. Bold, swift and scalable policies are required. Policies that bring together stakeholders, built upon transparency, stability and collectiveness. Our society can harness these challenges, to create new opportunities for the benefit of all.”

This sentiment was shared by Vince Clancy, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Turner & Townsend, who outlined that “we have to reinvent the industry to embrace digital, embrace modern methods of construction and to embrace net-zero.”