It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Alex Bennett, Managing Director at MEC Consulting Group.
We are of the opinion 2025 will be a year of opportunity. Having negotiated a turbulent five years with Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and political instability, we now have some certainty, and the property and construction industry can collectively start to drive the economy forward.
We are expecting a big push on residential development to meet the government’s 1.5m homes target, and have already felt an increase in activity in recent months. Now with the release of the new NPPF confirming increased housing targets, unlocking grey belt land and accelerating affordable housing delivery, residential development should progress at a faster pace and on more of an open-door policy than we’ve experienced in recent years.
This activity will hopefully drive more business growth, give confidence for additional investment in people and training, and enable us to escape ‘survival mode’ that has been de rigueur for the past five years.
But of course it is wise to approach these opportunities with a degree of trepidation.
How will the industry, its people and systems cope? Especially with the small matter of geopolitical issues that cause economic uncertainty.
The private and public sector is significantly under-resourced and heavily reliant on fundamentally broken systems. Plugging the skills shortage is a huge challenge with new funding, training and policies desperately needed to achieve these ambitious targets.
From a technical perspective, the new NPPF has introduced ‘vision led’ transport and has sought to clarify how the sequential test should be applied. Both will require further interpretation, no doubt through Appeal, as we seek to narrow the parameters and this will no doubt present challenges for developers and the industry as we seek to quickly understand how these new requirements can and will be applied.
In summary, if 2025 is going to present opportunity, then we must approach this sustainably and not act in haste that we create a vacuum of ‘what’s next’? We must learn from previous mistakes and not fall into the trap of a boom and bust strategy. This applies both to our business and the industry as a whole. If we can achieve this, then I suggest 2025 has cause for cautious optimism.
