CIOB at the 2023 Party Conferences

Over the course of September and October 2023, CIOB’s policy and public affairs team, alongside current CIOB President Sandi Rhys Jones, attended a series of the political party conferences, including Liberal Democrat (Bournemouth 23 – 26 September), Conservative (Manchester 1 – 4 October), Plaid Cymru (Aberystwyth 6 – 7 October) and Labour (Liverpool 8 – 11 October).

This blog takes a short look at the various fringe events and meetings that the team attended throughout conference season. 

Liberal Democrat Party Conference 

This year’s Liberal Democrat Party Conference was once again hosted in Bournemouth. The Conference was attended by CIOB’s President, Sandi Rhys Jones and included a packed line up of interesting events on skills, environmental challenges and built environment related subjects. 

Over the course of the two days Sandi attended a number of meetings on behalf of CIOB including with Liberal Democrat peers, Lord Stunell to discuss retrofit actions and the skills needed to meet net zero ambitions, Baroness Garden where they focused on skills and diversity in the industry and Baroness Thornhill. 

Sandi also met with industry contacts including MCS Charitable Foundation and National House Building Council (NHBC) alongside attending interesting events such as a session on sustainability in housing hosted by Chelmsford City Council and Thakeham. 

Conservative Party Conference 

The team were once again out in force at Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. This year’s atmosphere was an interesting one as, unlike last year, ministers were more visible, towing party lines and making appearances at fringe events. However, there seemed to be something in the air (an impending general election) which many Government representatives were unwilling to, or uninterested in, discussing. 

Regardless, there was plenty to talk about in terms of housing, with a large number of fringes relating to the subject or latterly related to built environment disciplines such as the skills crisis and tackling net zero. The later which was of particular interest following September’s speech from the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak MP, where he ‘scaled back’ on the country’s ambitions.

Over the course of the two days the team attended a large number of fringes including an event on unlocking the UK’s potential housing delivery hosted by NHBC, a session on practical solutions to the housing crisis by Clarion Housing Group, a talk on boosting green skills by the Social Market Foundation as well as a housing fringe by Sovereign, the New Homes Quality Board and Vistry Group. It is worth noting that Minister for Housing & Planning, Rachel Maclean MP spoke at a large number of these events, showing the Government’s intention to push their messaging on housing ahead of an election. The team also attended and participated in a roundtable hosted by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) focusing on solutions to fix England’s constrained planning system. 

Some highlights from these events included hearing from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, Michael Gove MP about the pressing need to address the housing crisis and tackle low-income housing inequality at an event hosted by Shelter. At the event, Shelter also discussed their four-point plan for “ending the housing emergency, outlining what people across England and the housing sector are demanding from our country’s next government.” Notably, this included rent controls at the heart of future housing policy and a political party commitment across the spectrum to commit to building 90,000 social homes a year for the next 10-years.

The Secretary of State, during his formal address to conference attendees, reiterated the Government’s commitment to deliver a long-term plan for housing to built “in the hearts of town and cities on brownfield land”. Mr Gove also stated that the Government will continue to protect Green Belt land and ensure that new homes are energy efficient and net zero ready. 

As has been the case for many years, part of our activity at Conservative Party Conference was to host a fringe event, in partnership with the Royal Town Planning Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The fringe event, hosted on Monday 2 October, brought together the institutes and Minister for Housing and Planning, Rachel Maclean MP, to discuss whether the housing crisis will determine the next election. It was a lively discussion that touched on a number of key points including the need for greater housing supply and quality, the issues arising in generating a skilled and trained workforce of construction professionals and the continued lack of diversity in the construction sector. You can rewatch the full event here. 

Notably, the Minister appeared receptive to our proposals for the creation of a built environment GCSE to attract those to a career in the sector, whilst instilling a formal qualification that young people can take on to the next stage of their career.

Plaid Cymru Party Conference

CIOB was thrilled to attend Plaid Cymru’s annual conference in Aberystwyth on 6-7 October. It was our first time at their conference, and the first party conference we had attended in Wales for many years.

To assist in engagement CIOB had an exhibition stand at the conference which was well attended across the two days by members of the party and other organisations that were interested in working together. Interesting discussions arose, in particular about mental health in the construction industry, and we were delighted to meet like-minded organisations like Papyrus and look forward to continuing working with them in the future. We also met with representatives from Guide Dogs Cymru (including a very good guide dog called Crompton) to discuss access rights for those with sight loss and in the wider disabled community.

We also had several interesting conversations with Plaid Cymru councillors from all over Wales, including rural Gwynedd. Empowered by a speech by Plaid Cymru’s Health, Social Care and Housing spokesperson, Mabon Ap Gwynfor MS, they were keen to discuss placemaking and how to ensure housebuilding is always done to reflect local need.

We were also thrilled to meet numerous elected representatives of Plaid Cymru across the two days. These included meetings with Luke Fletcher MS, Llŷr Gruffydd MS (Chair of the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee), Heledd Fychan MS, Peredur Owen Griffiths MS (member of the Senedd’s Housing Cross Party Group) and Rhun ap lorwerth MS (Plaid Cymru party leader). Key points of discussion included how to ensure construction projects, including housing, meet local needs and do not focus solely on profit; the barriers faced by SMEs in procurement processes; the construction sector’s skills gap, and CIOB's proposed demolition levy and how to encourage reuse and retrofit of Wales’s built environment. 

All in all, party conference was filled with interesting discussions, and we look forward to continuing those discussions with the contacts made in the coming months. We are also looking forward to Spring conference season!

Labour Party Conference 

The final conference for the year was in Liverpool for Labour which was packed full of members and businesses eager to influence the party’s agenda and forthcoming manifesto. In the leader’s speech, Keir Starmer MP focused on Labour’s vision to create planning reform enabling a delivery of 1.5 million new homes and towns. Planning reforms and housing was certainly on the Labour Party’s political agenda as Rachel Reeves MP, as Shadow Chancellor, provided more detail about the changes they would want to see and how.

CIOB held two events discussing how we, as a professional body, can play our role in bringing together key stakeholders from across the built environment when it comes to creating short- and long-term strategies for creating both high quality, sustainable homes both old and new in addition to addressing the skills shortage issues.

The first event we held was in partnership with RIBA, RICS and RTPI on the Monday morning with Metro Mayor for South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard. The discussion centred around Labour needing to form a strategy to address the prevalent planning and wider skills issues that is preventing the industry from delivering on housing and inspiring the next generation to join the industry. You can rewatch the full event here. 

Our second event was held later that day in partnership with the Federation of Master Builders with Metro Mayor for the West of England, Dan Norris, looking at the plans in which Labour Leader, Keir Starmer MP could put in place to enhance our built environment and create the buildings we need for our communities now and for the future. You can rewatch the full event here. 

Party Conferences create a fruitful environment for holding meetings with key stakeholders and CIOB held several between organisations within the built environment and those wanting to be more involved with CIOB. For the fringe events the team attended several panel discussions on topics including affordable housing, sustainability and green design, creating a skills pipeline through apprenticeship reforms. This enabled CIOB to ask the important questions to the Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook MP and later to Councillors and Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing & Communities Select Committee, Clive Betts MP on ensuring that new homes being built must be sustainable and high quality. 

This year has been a great success for getting across the key messages to policy makers that the built environment must be part of the solution when it comes to creating safe and sustainable homes across the UK and the CIOB are the right conduit for holding those conversations between government and industry.