Since the UK General Election, I have been encouraged by the ambition for more devolved decision-making. What I am being told is that the combined regional authorities will not only execute, but frame much of government policy on the ground.

Time will tell what this adds up to in practice and, specifically, how the allocation of resource changes, but there is little doubt that the messaging from central and local government is consistent: more transport, housing, planning and educational decisions will be taken at a regional level than before. I have been left in no doubt that regional Mayors intend to make it harder for local planning objections to block housebuilding.

In my meetings with the Combined Authority Mayors, I have made the case that it is not just the number of houses that matters; there needs to be emphasis, care and planning to ensure that the houses are well-built, sustainable and supported by the right infrastructure. This is where the RICS membership can help the regional authorities deliver on their ambitions.

It was no coincidence that one of the first photo opportunities of the Labour Government was the regional mayors walking into Number 10. The message was clear: the elected leaders of the combined authorities will make crucial decisions on where, and how, houses are built in their areas and the nature of the new transport infrastructure.

The mayors also intend to work with central government to influence the curriculum taught at their local schools so that a greater priority is given to vocational subjects. I am absolutely sure that, over the next five years, we will all hear and learn a lot more about T levels and that is a very good thing too.

Upskilling
Time and again, in discussions with local and national politicians, and our RICS members and their counterparties, the subject comes back to skills, skills, skills. If we are going to create the built environment we all want and if we are going to re-shape our industry so that it truly offers opportunities to all then we must find ways to increase the vocational skills of those leaving school.

Every day I hear that the labour force is not equipped to meet the needs of our construction and house-building industries. We have to find a way to make the business of the Built Environment more interesting, more attractive and more approachable to tens of thousands of students, year in, year out.

One very practical way this could be done is through reform of the apprentice levy, and the new Government is to be applauded for making this a priority under a new body: Skills England.

All of us working in the built environment need to be encouraging Government to make it easier for employers to actually spend the money in their apprentice levy pots, for example through the funding of six week training programmes so that students can get a real taste of what a business can offer before they make any firm decisions about their futures.

The current rules governing how the apprentice levy money can be spent are long and complex . One friend of RICS, that runs an entity getting young students to engage with the Real Estate world, told me that he lost the will to live reading the Government website on how to access apprentice levy funding. This money has the potential to be a really significant boost to creating a more skilful workforce and employers are keen to spend it.

I am determined that RICS is right in the forefront of this charge, and initiative, to improve skills amongst our young workforce. One way I hope to help is by working alongside the other major professional bodies within the Built Environment to coordinate our messaging and interaction with schools and students.

The business of Real Estate, the built environment, is unique because of the range of professions that work within it and this breadth of opportunity is one of the aspects that make it such a vibrant and attractive place to work.

However, this same variety and diversity can also make the messaging to students a bit unclear. If at the same school careers fair there are representatives from surveyors, planners, engineers, house builders, contractors, architects, prop tech, and so on, then we are diluting our message to the students.

What we should aim for, ideally, is a single message that says: “Come and get involved in building the future for your community and country. Here are the huge number of ways you can get involved.”

We are working on this and I suspect more and more of my time at RICS, and that of other leaders within our industry, is going to be spent developing and executing a strategy to get this message to tens of thousands of students each and every year. If we get it right it will be transformative for the students, our industry and the built environment in which we all live and work.

Heart of a lion
Away from matters of high policy and one of the things I am proudest of is our charity partner, Lionheart. Established as an independent charity by RICS professionals it is there to help our members, and their families, that have fallen on hard times.

This year is its 125th anniversary. We have celebrated it in a number of ways during the year and our members especially our younger members through the Matrics network have raised money for it in all sorts of ways. Just this year alone, Lionheart has supported surveyors and their families in 36 countries worldwide and delivered over 1500 hours of counselling and half a million pounds in grants to surveyors in difficulties.

Lionheart is a constant reminder to me that for all the rightful emphasis on places, buildings, policy documents and frameworks our business, and every business, is about people and in the midst of all the noise and fury we must not forget this.