CIOB policy chief Eddie Tuttle reflects on the key messages from Labour and the Conservatives during the autumn conferences
I mentioned in the September issue that CIOB’s Policy and Public Affairs Team were planning for party conference season.
As in previous years, our planning led us to meetings with politicians, stakeholders and organisations where we felt we could have the greatest impact. As members expect, we aim to deploy our resources as effectively as possible and our in-person visits focus on the party of government and the official opposition.
But as party conference season ends (at the time of writing), here’s my round-up of 2025’s events.
Labour pledge
We were at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool where, inevitably, construction and housing were a major part of a pledge to ”renew Britain”, as highlighted in Sir Keir Starmer’s keynote speech.
The housing secretary, Steve Reed, reiterated the Government’s commitment to housebuilding through his “build, baby, build” slogan. This chimed with the New Towns Taskforce final report, published in September, which identified 12 locations for potential designation as new towns and recommendations on how they should be delivered.
“Construction and housing were a major part of a pledge to ‘renew Britain’, as highlighted in Keir Starmer’s keynote speech”
CIOB President, Paul Gandy, was busy across the conference, speaking at CIOB events and participating in others hosted by City & Guilds.
We hosted three events, working in collaboration with some of our sister professional bodies and sector trade associations to strengthen our message. We teamed up with the FMB, RIBA, RICS and the RTPI to deliver two roundtables focusing on the skills gap and the capacity needed if the Government is to reach its 1.5 million homes target.
We also raised the issue of quality and safety, and made the case that quality should not be sacrificed in pursuit of targets.
Tory stamp duy pledge
A few days later, at the Conservative Party conference, their theme was ‘resetting’ the Conservative brand and re-establishing their credibility. Interestingly, there were fewer announcements on housing policy than many of us expected, beyond their traditional argument that homeownership should be aspirational and accessible. The only headline-grabbing housing-related announcement was a pledge to abolish stamp duty on primary homes in England and Northern Ireland.
The CIOB’s main event during this conference was supporting the business reception, alongside a number of other organisations, at which shadow chancellor Mel Stride spoke. It was a packed event and a good opportunity to sense the direction of travel on housing and construction policy development.
As ever, we met with a broad range of policymakers across both conferences, covering local constituency matters, regional business needs and larger public policy issues. We will continue many of these conversations as policies emerge and change and will, of course, continue making the case for construction.
Eddie Tuttle is director of policy, research, and public affairs at CIOB.
