The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has set out its manifesto for the built environment in the lead-up to the UK general election next year.
The RICS manifesto, which is titled Empowering a Sustainable Future, sets out a 10-point roadmap to help create safe, sustainable and affordable homes for all, to promote building safety, and help develop future skills for a sustainable built environment industry.
Key asks within the manifesto include: increase the supply of rented homes to meet demand and slow rent rises; deliver a joined-up quality and sustainability strategy; review skills shortages to tackle targets; hit housing targets with a housing delivery strategy; and action the recommendations from the recent RICS Decarbonising UK Real Estate that call for reform to how building performance and EPCs are presented.
A senior delegation from RICS will present the manifesto and its key messages at the upcoming Conservative Party and Labour Party conferences next month.
Justin Young (pictured), CEO of RICS, said: “As a leading representative of the built and natural environment sectors in the UK and globally, RICS advocates policies with solutions to some of the most critical challenges of our time. The public needs safe, sustainable, energy-efficient, and affordable homes; businesses need high-quality commercial spaces that align with the decentralised digital economy, while the industry needs a more robust pipeline of diverse talent that fulfils the skills demands of the sector so that it can deliver its goals.
“The RICS manifesto provides food for thought for the parties as they develop their policy platforms for the next general election, and we look forward to engaging with their policy teams at the upcoming party conferences.”
