Phil Briscoe: Conservatives have a unique voice in the arena of housing and development – we want to amplify it

Phil Briscoe is Founder and Executive Director of the newly launched Conservative Housing and Development Network.

We have watched from the sidelines in recent years as the debate about housing need has raged, all the while reducing that debate to a simple binary yes or no discussion governed by artificial and often undeliverable targets from government.

Along the way we have lost sight of the aspirational driver for individuals to secure a safe and decent space of their own to call home.

As a Conservative Party, we have also taken our focus off the importance of outcomes and as a nation, we have become too hung up on process to think about what we are trying to achieve, at the expense of how we achieve, where we facilitate it and when we deliver it. As a party that believes in freedom, choice and aspiration, we have for too long now neglected to ask the people themselves what their housing future looks like.

The Conservative Party has always been fertile territory for special interest and fringe groups, but until this year, the property and housing sector has been largely neglected.

Perhaps it was a given, and we didn’t need to have a group dedicated to such a fundamental policy area, but times have changed, and the entire political spectrum currently seems to hold more problems than solutions for the built environment in the 21^st century. To re-establish itself as a major political force, the Conservative Party needs to claim housing and development relevance again and demonstrate to voters that it has the solutions, while demonstrating to the sector that it understands the economic and aspirational importance of getting this right.

It is for these reasons that we have launched the Conservative Housing and Development Network, a dedicated group to provide a networking space alongside a policy idea incubation and contribution forum for any Conservative members or supporters who operate in, or are interested in, the broad area of housing, development and construction.

Crucially, we have assembled teams of patrons across all tiers of elected politics alongside advisors from all sectors of the industry – to work, this needs to be a group that is neither politicians talking to politicians nor the industry talking to itself, but a true collaboration between industry and politics to identify the problems, find solutions and deliver a radical housing and development manifesto for the 2030s and beyond.

Our directors Pearce Branigan, Aisha Cuthbert, Tom Martin, Jessica Stewart and myself are all veterans of the planning and housing world, combining decades of experience across the country – in addition to our lengthy experience in the Conservative Party, as voluntary officers, councillors and candidates.

We should not talk in absolute terms in politics and housing is no different – we cannot say all housing is good or all housing is bad and neither can we say that everyone should aim to own their own home in much the same way that we cannot say nobody should own a car, everyone should have a garden or attempt to put people in little boxes – either figuratively or literally.

This group is unashamedly pro-housing, we believe it underpins the national identity of aspiration and delivers a significant boost to our economic growth and prosperity, and yet we also acknowledge that there is such a thing as bad housing or the wrong type of housing in the wrong place.

Our mission is to help the policy makers of the future get that balance right.

We start from the individual perspective of choice and recognise that individuals and their families have their own aspirations – market-sale housing sits alongside private rental stock and various forms of social or affordable housing stock plus other more contemporary solutions such as co-living, build-to-rent, senior living and purpose-built student accommodation.

All have a role to play in housing delivery and as Conservatives, we should believe in a lengthy a la carte housing menu rather than a narrow table d’hote menu that is much more closely aligned to a socialist outlook. For most people, their investment in housing in whatever form, will far outshine any other spend or investment they make in their lifetime.

Unlike some commentators in the sector, we recognise that the challenge is huge, and the obstacles are many. There is no quick fix, there is no easy solution and there are dozens of issues, challenges and opportunities to consider along the way.

This is a discussion not only about the planning system, but also the infrastructure of state-funded statutory consultees that have been spawned to stop, delay and frustrate development and progress.

It is a review about the construction sector and how we can train, equip and grow a skilled workforce to deliver the homes and developments we need.

It is a consideration about tenures, access and how people can be supported to secure the housing they need.

It is a focus on placemaking and infrastructure, and how we can better deliver new and desirable communities, freeing up the capital that is so often shackled by bureaucracy.

It is another look at design and quality and how we can deliver the homes people want as opposed to the units that council planners think they should have.

It is also a discussion about how local politics and democracy can be empowered to engage and facilitate housing delivery rather than being pilloried as the blocker.

Above all it is a Conservative discussion that starts with the aspiration to enable the construction and development sector to deliver the homes, places and infrastructure our country needs – and with a clear understanding that if government can’t enable that, they should get out of the way and let the private development sector do what it does best and deliver the results we need.

You can find out more and get involved here