Fortune favours the brave, so why are people battening down the hatches?

“Naïve, ideological and stupid.” That is how one of my contacts summed up the Labour government this week.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner’s admission she didn’t pay enough stamp duty on her second home, made the same day as chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed that ‘Britain’s economy isn’t broken’, will have done nothing to convince people otherwise. But while the same contact feared that if the government doesn’t get its act together soon, we could be facing a crisis budget in 2026, let’s not turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yes, the level of ineptitude (and hypocrisy) shown by this government defies belief. Yes, the gilts sell off has pushed UK borrowing costs to a 27-year high. And yes, having briefly listened to industry leaders in the run up to the election, the government has since assiduously ignored them.

Over the summer, however, there were signs of a willingness to re-engage with the private sector. In July, the government committed to using PPPs to deliver health infrastructure projects and put a £1bn programme of projects out to tender with a view to issuing a formal tender by June next year.

So, having pledged to deliver 1.5m homes over the term of this parliament, has it finally accepted that it has no choice but to work more closely with the private sector if it is to fund and deliver infrastructure and development at scale?

That is one of the questions we will be asking at our Spotlight on Public Private Partnerships event on Tuesday 9 September exploring ‘how we unlock the funding to turn ambition into reality’. We will also be delving into what it takes for such partnerships to succeed in the face of ongoing economic and political headwinds.

We will be posing a similar question in relation to retail at our ‘Spotlight on Retail: Revival of the Fittest’ event on 16 September (you’ll need to be quick if you want to attend as there are only a handful of places left) and I have no doubt versions of the same question will be asked at our Spotlight on Managed Workspace in October and our Spotlights on Power and the Building Safety Act in November – because right now, it appears that success can only be achieved despite rather than because of this government.

That is why the level of caution in the market at the moment is concerning. I think I may have lulled myself into a false sense of security in August when everyone (except us – the downside of running a small business) seemingly took the whole month off for the first time since prior to the pandemic, signalling an apparent return to normality. A poll of UK companies by Lloyds Bank also suggested business confidence had reached the highest level since 2014 despite anxiety over the economy.

However, that was August. This is September – and while the flow of deal stories into the BE News inbox has increased once more underscoring the uptick in activity, several people I have spoken to recently admit they are very nervous about the future and are battening down the hatches accordingly.

While this is clearly not the moment to throw caution to the wind, fortune favours the brave. Many will be feeling battle-weary as we head into the autumn, but we can’t afford to be battle wary. We need to come out fighting… and talking. So what if the government is only re-engaging with the industry out of necessity? This is a golden opportunity to respond in kind and re-engage with government. It needs the industry’s input on multiple fronts and is in such a mess it might actually be receptive to it.

You never know, lobby government effectively and help it introduce much needed clarity to its policies and the industry might start succeeding partly because of this government rather than despite it.

Help close the skills gap

I am excited to announce that we will be running our first larger event, in collaboration with RICS, next month. The free-to-attend Skills Gap Spotlight + Hackathon will take place from 27 to 28 October at RICS’ 12 Great George Street office in Westminster and will explore creative ways to close the skills gap. We are looking for sponsor partners to join BE News, RICS and Walker Morris in our mission, so if you would like to find out more about how you can get involved, email me at liz@benews.co.uk. If you are interested in attending, keep your eyes peeled for the news story inviting you to register your interest in the coming days and have your fingers at the ready – places are limited and likely to go quickly!