Truss, who convincingly beat rival Rishi Sunak in the leadership race, has held six ministerial posts under three prime ministers, including 11 months as foreign minister. Yet despite holding many high-profile jobs in government, she remains somewhat of a shapeshifting enigma, particularly when it comes to her policies. For example, she famously supported the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, only to switch to supporting Brexit after the result.
During the leadership race, Truss stood on similar ground with regard to housing policy as Sunak, pledging to encourage building in brownfield areas and promising to simplify the process.
However, she appears to be at odds with previous Conservative governments and has promised to remove “Whitehall-inspired Stalinist housing targets” in favour of tax cuts and deregulation for firms to reduce building delays, effectively scrapping long-held government targets of 300,000 houses a year.
Again, this appears contradictory to her previous reforms proposals. In 2018, she stated the government should increase house building in rural areas. In 2019 she stated that “we do have to be prepared to take on those who don’t want a house built in the field next to them.”
Quite rightly, her priority needs to be to somehow address the energy crisis. But in the weeks that follow (or at least enough time for a couple more u-turns on policies and several new Housing Ministers), the property industry will be looking to her for answers.
As expected, the industry was quick to react to the news. Here's what they're saying.
James Tucker, founder and CEO of Twenty7Tec, says: “One thing that I hope that our new PM gets right is the stop treating the housing and mortgage sectors as unrelated industries. MHCLG and Treasury need more joined-up thinking on how they work together.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric about housebuilding, yet even the recent report by the Land Registry into house buying barely touches on the element that makes the market work: mortgages.
“In my view, the Government needs a fully functioning mortgage market in order to continue to deliver a healthy and vibrant housing market which contributes to the nation’s greater wealth.
“We’d love to have clear commitments in relation to how to support First Time Buyers, for example. Without First Time Buyers being able to access the market, then the rest of the chain is possibly overly reliant on Buy To Let landlords at the lower echelons.”
Simon Cox, Managing Director of Walter Cooper, says: “When it comes to housing, resolving the issues in planning needs to be one of the top items on the next PM’s agenda, and that will mean making some unpopular decisions. Truss now needs to shift her focus from pandering to the NIMBY masses and publicly turn away from previous statements made by other Conservative MPs such as Michael Gove, regarding the so-called ‘cartel’, or face alienating the housebuilding community entirely. However, with a general election likely on the horizon I’m doubtful these difficult choices will be put into action any time soon.
“Housing plays a major part in supporting the economy, and as we head into a predicted recession this will prove more important than ever. I’d therefore implore the new PM to work with those in the industry to provide support in promoting an ‘open for housebuilding’ agenda. Truss may have pledged her commitment to removing planning restrictions in an attempt to boost housebuilding, but in abandoning the government target of building 300,000 houses a year, will her so-called ‘investment zones’ ever really come to fruition? I’m not sure, but the fact of the matter is, as prices continue to rise due to a lack of supply, something needs to be done to increase the number of houses built in this country before home ownership becomes further out of reach for all but a select few.”
Melanie Leech, Chief Executive at the British Property Federation, said: “We urgently need strong Government leadership after a period of drift. The new Prime Minister must address the immediate cost pressures facing businesses and families, but in parallel, there must a clear focus on the longer-term objectives to tackle inequalities across the UK and transition to a greener, high-productivity economy. We look forward to working with Ms Truss to harness the power and potential of the property sector to deliver the homes, work and leisure spaces that will revitalise our town and city centres and underpin our future prosperity as a nation.”
Nick Sanderson, CEO at Audley Group, comments: "Our new Prime Minister will have a lot on her plate, but I hope her vocal commitments to social care are not forgotten. She is right that focusing on social care will free up space in the NHS, but wrong to think it is only money that can achieve this laudable aim. Housing, health, and social care should all go hand in hand to look at prevention, rather than cure. The more age-appropriate housing, with care and wellbeing facilities on site that we build, the lighter the pressure on the system. It’s been proven time and time again that people need fewer stays in hospital and are less likely to end up a care home if they live in the right housing. So, I urge Liz Truss and her new cabinet to activate the promised task force on housing for older people and benefit the coffers of the Treasury by focusing on real solutions that need collaboration, not cost."
Nathan Emerson, Propertymark’s Chief Executive, said: “We congratulate Liz Truss on her successful election campaign and urge her to work with property professionals to find solutions to these major issues facing the sector.
“The spiralling cost of household gas and electricity bills has put the energy efficiency of our existing housing stock into sharp focus. With unilateral EPC rating targets looming, there is currently no long-term plan that sets out how they will be achieved.
“Propertymark is a strong advocate of making homes more energy efficient as the best solution to bringing down bills. However, it is unlikely that significant progress can be made until Ministers better understand the current housing stock and then apply realistic targets based on properties' individual characteristics with sustained funding for homeowners."
On housing supply, Emerson added: “It's no surprise that boosting housing supply topped our poll. Our latest market insight reports show for every rental property available there are an average of 11 applicants, while home buyers are outnumbering sellers by seven to one. This is creating affordability issues, particularly in the private rented sector.
“We believe that gap can be closed through measures that bring the many tens of thousands of long-term empty properties back and the introduction of focussed targets for new homes that are based on an identified need for each tenure across the country.”
Gillian Charlesworth, CEO, Building Research Establishment, comments: “The new UK Government must ramp up its action on climate change – and central to this should be driving a green transition in the built environment. We were pleased to see the newly appointed Prime Minister, Liz Truss, pledging to help people insulate their homes as the UK heads towards net zero. However, we will need to go much further if we are to fully decarbonise the UK’s building stock, which currently makes up a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“What’s more, improving the energy efficiency of our homes and buildings is one of the only viable ways to lower energy bills, which are now at record highs and set to rise even further in October. With macroeconomic pressures worsening, rolling out measures to improve the energy efficiency of our housing stock will be paramount in relieving households of the financial pressures they are currently facing.
“This is why we are urging our new Prime Minister to publish a credible and effective plan to decarbonise our existing homes and buildings. At its core, this would set out a fully funded national retrofit strategy defining energy efficiency measures, such as insulation, for all UK households. This would help to address fuel poverty for thousands of households head-on, significantly lower energy bills, and ensure our buildings are fit for the future.
“It is crucial that any plans to scrap green levies do not impact energy efficiency schemes, which are critical in delivering improvements to our housing stock.
“These are priorities we cannot afford to ignore as the UK seeks to establish itself as a world leader in climate policy.”
Nick Leeming, Chairman of Jackson-Stops, comments: “Stability is key for a healthy economy and housing market - I hope that Truss will put a stop to the Housing Minister merry-go-round we’ve seen over the last decade. There remains an imbalance between housing supply and demand for both buyers and tenants, so we look forward to a more normalised marketplace. We need consistent policies to achieve this.”
