Speaking up @ RESI 2015

This week Osborne Clarke and Smart Cities have been out and about at RESI 2015. New this year, and sponsored by OC, was “Speaker’s Corner”, focussing on Smart Cities and housing of the future. The Summer may be over but here’s on what’s hot in RESI:

RESI 2015

OC ventured into new territory this week at RESI 2015. RESI is the industry gathering for the residential sector. It takes a holistic view of residential development and investment, comprising market, economic, political and social perspectives. In its 9th year the annual conference attracted 800 delegates over 3 days of learning, debate and networking. RESI attracts some of the most influential figures in the sector, derived from both the private and public sector.

This year the OC team took the plunge by sponsoring a new addition to RESI, the Speakers’ Corner. This was an opportunity to raise OC profile on the back of some significant, first of a kind, work in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) to promote, as one client put it, our ‘market leading’ knowledge of these transactions and developments. We had the opportunity to speak directly with leading figures from the institutional investors and large scale developers active in this market.

OC’s RESI started with the private Editors Welcome Dinner. This was an informal dinner which OC hosted on behalf of the Editor of Property Week, Liz Hamson. The guests were a mix of OC clients and senior industry personalities. We were joined by; Bill Hughes/L&G, Richard McCarthy/Capita, Nick Jopling/Grainger, Graham Chilver/Barclays, Philip Barnes/Barratt, Andrew Appleyard/Aviva, Lucian Cook/Savills, Dan Byles /Living Planit, Ian Piper/HCA, Bruce Ritchie/Residential Land and Jamie Ratcliff/GLA. It proved a good event, where we able to meet new contacts and raise our profile.

OC Speakers’ Corner

The Speakers’ Corner agenda was designed to be an alternative to the main speaking programme and would run as TED style 20 minute talks in between the main event. We seized on badging the programme “‘Smart Cities’ Smart Cities: New ideas on housing and how people interact with the City they live in.”

With a focus on Smart Cities and housing of the future, the programme included discussions from thought leaders and influencers shaping the delivery of innovative housing solutions and out-of-the-box placemaking centring on how people interact with the city they live in. We were able to invite some of the speakers and contacts we have made through our ‘Smart Cities’ campaign who not only supported OC and the work we are doing in this space but were able to challenge the thinking of the delegates.

Speakers’ Corner Programme

• Smart Cities of the Future: Dan Byles, Vice President, Corporate Development, Living PlanIT
• The Internet of Things: Potential and Challenges for the Built Environment: Dr Theo Tryfonas, Senior Lecturer in Systems Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol
• Modern Methods of Construction – Smart building that can address the housing supply deficit: Rachel Bagenal, Director, Naked House
• Placemaking and New Settlements – Smart Growth: James Gross, Master Planning Director, Barton Wilmore
• Get ready for Tomorrow – What should the industry do now, what should the Government do, what if we do nothing?: Robert Adam, Director, Adam Urbanism
• Building around Rivers and Canals: Private/Public Sector Partnerships that extract value from underutilized sites for Residential Development: Richard Thomas, Development Director, Bloc, H20 Urban

What of the rest of the programme?

The event attracted some heavyweight speakers including former Bank of England MPC member Dr Andrew Sentance; former Labour chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling; minister of state for housing and planning Brandon Lewis; and, ahead of the Rugby World Cup, former World Cup and Dancing on Ice winner Kyran Bracken (Thanks to David Powell for this one!)

The economy

Dr Andrew Sentence PWC Lead Economist and former Bank of England MPC member took a bullish stance on the potential impact of China’s economic woes, produced and interesting statistic that a higher percentage of people now own their homes outright than have mortgages, forecast on-going growth in house prices with private renters rising from current 20% to 25% of population by middle of decade and called for an immediate interest rate rise

Housing from a Government perspective

Alistair Darling said the government needs to do more to build and supplement PRS and called government intervention to boost supply in the UK housing market and champion housing initiatives and planning reform. He made the case for state justification in intervening due to a “market failure” to meet housing demand.

Housing minister Brandon Lewis was questioned on the Governments plans for an extension to office-to-residential permitted development rights (PDR), and responded that they still had not made a decision. In his speech he promised an announcement “relatively soon”, but would not give a clear commitment. The Great Yarmouth MP also said that starter homes, neighbourhood planning, brownfield registers and custom build would all feature in the new legislation. He also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to extend Right to Buy to housing associations. He said it’s “now time” for more councils to look at developing land with third party capital and it is “Too easy to blame planners, they are delivering permissions, but do need to look a planning process to ensure they get built. He maintained the government was focused on boosting supply as well as demand, although the prospect of green belt being released sounds slim. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” he said.

Understanding the generation divide

There was a fantastic presentation from Lucian Cook Head of Research at Savills on understanding the generation divide, the impact this will could for housing demand, how people live and the changing house agenda.

This was particularly important in trying to understand Generation Rent. A recurring theme at RESI, one that James Scott of the Collective threw into sharp relief when he declared his generation was less and less concerned about possessions and more and more about experiences. There was also a call for the industry to see rental homes as a product for customers, and should tailor homes to fit in with tenants. Bill Hughes, managing director of Legal & General Property, supported this when he told the audience about his own experiences of renting. “In January I decided to make myself a human experiment by becoming a renter, I found that the service was derisory – it couldn’t have gone worse.” Bruce Ritchie, chief executive of Residential Land, added: “The market has changed; tenants are much more savvy.”

Conclusion

It was a lively event with plenty discussed to challenge the market. From an OC perspective we had some excellent meetings and received positive feedback for the Smart Cities – Speakers’ Corner. Thanks to all those who attended; Conrad Davies, Nadine Strahl, Raj Mangat, Elizabeth Sturgess, Sarah Knight and Sharon Lewis.