This year’s Fabian Society Housing Summit, delivered in partnership with RICS, brought together politicians, policymakers, housing organisations and industry leaders to discuss the future of housing policy and reform in the UK. PEXA was delighted to support and contribute to this event.
When housing policy is discussed, the focus is often on one question: how do we build more homes?
Increasing housing supply remains fundamental to improving affordability and helping more people access home ownership. But discussions at this year’s Fabian Society Housing Summit highlighted another important part of the conversation that is gathering momentum – improving the way people buy and sell homes.
Across the day, a recurring theme emerged: creating a better-functioning housing market isn’t just about increasing supply. It’s also about making the homebuying process efficient, more transparent and more certain. As a sponsor of the event, PEXA contributed to those discussions through Angela Hesketh, Head of Government & Public Affairs, who delivered an opening keynote and participated in panel discussions.
Housing mobility is becoming part of the conversation
Opening the conference, Angela reflected on how the national housing debate is evolving.
While increasing housing supply rightly remains a key priority, there is growing recognition that improving housing mobility has an increasingly important role to play.
A house is not a home until a consumer can move in safely and securely, but today’s homebuying process can create unnecessary delay, uncertainty and cost for consumers. Improving that experience is an important part of wider housing reform.
Momentum behind reform
There was also recognition throughout the Summit that Government has created significant momentum through its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, alongside wider initiatives around Smart Data, Digital Identity and digital transformation.
Rather than viewing these as separate initiatives, there is an opportunity to connect them into a more joined-up housing ecosystem that delivers better outcomes for consumers.
As these programmes continue to develop, collaboration between government, regulators and industry will be critical to ensuring that reform delivers meaningful improvements across the homebuying journey.
Learning from international experience
Later in the day, Angela joined the Housing Around the World panel alongside Luke Charters MP, Tom Copley and Rose Grayston to discuss how different countries are addressing common housing challenges.
While every housing market operates within its own legal and regulatory framework, the discussion highlighted several common characteristics of successful systems.
These include earlier access to trusted information, stronger collaboration between organisations, better use of digital infrastructure and greater transparency for consumers.
Rather than suggesting the UK should replicate another country’s approach, the discussion focused on how these broader principles could help inform future reform.
A shared ambition
Across the Summit, there was broad support for the Government’s ambition to increase housing supply and improve access to home ownership, recognising that affordability remains one of the biggest challenges facing households across the UK.
Alongside this, there was clear recognition that making the process of buying and selling homes faster, more transparent and more reliable is an important part of creating a better-functioning housing market.
Reflecting on the discussions, Angela Hesketh said:
“It was encouraging to see such broad consensus that improving the homebuying experience is becoming an increasingly important part of wider housing policy. Building more homes remains essential, but creating a housing market where people can move with greater speed, certainty and confidence will also be critical to delivering better outcomes for consumers and supporting economic growth.”
The Summit demonstrated that there is growing momentum behind housing reform and an increasing willingness across government and industry to work together to modernise the homebuying process.
PEXA looks forward to continuing to work collaboratively with industry and government to support the modernisation of the UK’s homebuying process.
Further reading
The discussions at the Fabian Society Housing Summit reflect the growing momentum behind reform. In this related article, Angela Hesketh explores the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform consultation and why connected digital infrastructure will be key to delivering meaningful change.