Editor’s comment: Work together for the future we deserve

So I was going to write about politics and the promises that each of the parties are making on housing this week. I’d even written the first few lines. “I’m no housing expert, but I’m pretty sure the only way to ‘fix’ the housing problem is through true collaboration across parties, between the public and private sectors and by entirely reconstructing economics.” But I’m writing this from our Future of Real Estate summit (full write-up of which will be in EG next week) and I’ve had my head turned to write about something that might actually gain consensus. Something that might actually be able to be fixed. Although, admittedly, only with collaboration. The key themes being discussed here are sustainability, social impact, mental health and, of course, the economy. We set the scene with Emma Greenwood, the 15-year-old youth MP for Bury, delivering a keynote speech calling on us as business professionals to be the pioneers the country, planet and our future generations need. She urged us to move mountains, because she and the future generation believe we have the power to do so. Real estate as a pioneer. Real estate as a mountain mover. What an empowering message for an industry that is so often slapped down as a slow mover, a follower, the bad guy (or girl) in the room. Our second keynote came from Ged King, the founder of the Skullfades Foundation, a soon-to-be-registered charity that is focused on ending homelessness. Not by providing a bed for the night and putting some hot food in their bellies, but by providing a purpose, enabling a skill and fulfilling the human need to thrive. His foundation teaches rough-sleepers how to be barbers. Or at least that is what it does in a practical sense. What King and his team are really doing, however, is enabling people to make a contribution. Giving them a purpose. It was a powerful session. A unique session. And one that stunned the room to silence. What has been most telling for me was that at the end of the sessions, it was Greenwood and King who people – including several senior people – flocked to. Greenwood was their gateway to knowing what the next generation needed from the business of real estate and how they would attract and retain talent and future footfall, be that in shops, offices or homes. King was a tattooed, shining beacon of possibilities for an industry that clearly does want to make a real difference and have a valuable, honest and authentic social impact but still struggles, sometimes, to know exactly how to do that. The overarching message, however, from our keynotes and our industry panels was that we can only make the changes needed for real estate to deliver on the future it deserves if it works together. Individual manifestos of “I promise to do this and I promise to do that” are beautiful pieces of literature, wonderful promises, but they don’t really mean anything if they don’t deliver. No comment needed on how that’s been going lately. So, while the political parties are busy playing the schoolyard game of one-upmanship, our industry has the opportunity to deliver. We cannot fix the housing crisis, we cannot save the planet, we cannot end homelessness, we cannot remove the stigma of mental health and reduce its prevalence in our industry (see next week’s issue for more on that too, including a very revealing survey) on our own. But we do have a responsibility to do our bit, as most of the businesses at the Future of Real Estate event admitted. And, bit by bit, we might actually, together, stumble into delivering the solution. To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette