Liz Peace
Liz Peace has become a well known figure in the property industry in a little of over two years, since her appointment at the British Property Federation. With a remit to raise the profile of the industry in the eyes of Government she has set about that task tenaciously. She has used her experiences as a former civil servant and communications specialist to drive forward a number of key property industry campaigns, for example on REITs, which exemplifies her approach to lobbying – that the way to a Government’s heart is to say what you can do for it rather than what it can do for you.
Perceptions versus Reality in the Property Industry
Liz Peace
Very few people would dispute that the property development and investment industry has an image problem. Does it matter? Should we care? The answer to both these two questions has got to be yes. Investors and developers in property make a vital, but widely misunderstood, contribution to the UK’s economic and social life. The built environment not only provides the physical structures in which we conduct our business, our retail therapy and our leisure, it is also the foundation of the regeneration activity taking place in our cities, towns and neighbourhoods. In addition property is an asset that provides valuable returns for pensions and savings investment. Indeed the property component of the pensions and life funds has over the last 15 years provided a far better return to its investors then any other asset class.
If we fail to get across to opinion formers and policy makers in Government, the media and elsewhere in society the valuable role that property plays, then we will find ourselves subject to unsound tax and regulatory policies that damage our ability to do those very things that actually make us such a valuable component of the UK social and economic fabric.
Investors and developers in property make a vital, but widely misunderstood, contribution to the UK’s economic and social life.
So what should be done? A good communications strategy has got to play a large part of any solution – not a big brash advertising campaign but meticulously researched and continual quality briefing provided to key opinion formers, drawing out not what the property industry wants from Government, but what it can do, and is doing, to help Government implement its agenda for business growth, urban renewal, improved housing supply and enhanced savings opportunities. The industry needs to come out of the closet and tell the world about its successes in rebuilding places such as Birmingham, Manchester, Paddington and, of course, Docklands. It needs to continue the policy that it has already begun of improving the quality and flexibility of the product that is offered to its customers. Business needs good premises but it also needs them on terms that encourage the growth and diversity of different types of businesses. The property industry is responding to this in many ways through flexible and shorter leases, a huge range of different types of accommodation from sophisticated tower blocks to small workshop units and through the ongoing process of modernising the traditional approach to the process of negotiating leases with its customers. And the benefits of being able to invest in commercial property need to be opened to the small scale retail investor through the introduction of the Real Estate Investment Trusts so that the man in the street can get a share in the financial success of places such as Bluewater, the Trafford Centre and the Bullring.
Opening up the property industry so that politicians and public can understand just what we do won’t all be plain sailing. There will always be negative stories about bad landlords. We also have to understand that good communications are no substitute for continuing improvement in the quality of the underlying product. With this in mind the industry needs to continue to look at its customer related practices, to explore new ways in which it can promote the Government’s urban renewal agenda and ensure that the investment products it offers are safe and well managed.
These are exciting times for the property development and investment industry. We have a lot to offer but unless we go out and explain that to the world, then we will fail to turn those negative perceptions into positive reality.