2024! A year when fortunes will be made!

With high likelihood of an Autumn 2024 election, riding on the coat-tails of potentially falling interest rates, the question is whether the current Government can present a convincing and coherent case, that will attract investment into a demonstrably growing UK economy. In the final weeks of 2023, while the Government was focused on responding to headlines related to past decisions or on legally and practically challenging policy areas unrelated to economic growth, clarity on direction of travel seemed in short supply.

And yet the world has changed. Accelerated during the Covid pandemic, the changes are leading to increasingly user and occupier focused real estate that deliver realisable value to occupiers and businesses. The imposed solutions of yesteryear are giving way to a more curated and fluid offer through responsive management which delivers resilient income with social value.

The new understanding creates opportunities that unlocks individual buildings, places and whole town and city centres. With most investment businesses having rebased their portfolios, there is now value add headroom for decision making.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduces potentially wide ranging powers that could be revolutionary in their application, if triggered by enabling legislation. Across the political parties, there is an increasing appetite to balance the voices to the single issue entities or self-appointed authorities, that are hamstringing planning decisions and stifling the changes needed to support economic growth, especially needed outside the key metropolitan areas.

With all political parties recognising the criticality of real economic growth in sustaining the country, enabling social mobility and to pay for the services needed, there is significant private sector capital ready to support investment but only if the political will is strong enough to ensure change can occur within a definable horizon.

2024 is the catalytic year when careful assessment of opportunities, coupled with a political imperative to show potential economic growth in the short term and from 2025, will lay the foundation of fortunes during the next Government.