🗓 Date: Monday, 26 September 2022
⏳ Time: 8:00
📍Location: Lower Galleria Room 1, ACC Liverpool, Kings Dock Street, Liverpool, England, L3 4FP
SME4Labour and Thakeham Private breakfast on Net Zero and Housing
We opened Monday with a breakfast co-hosted with Thakeham Housing to discuss how to build net-zero housing. The meeting was ably chaired by Mike Reader from MACE with contributions from Thakeham’s Rob Boughton, Siobhain McDonagh MP, Cllr Tom Renhard, Cllr Polly Billington and Sandy Martin former MP.
Discussion centred on how to ensure that Housing remained affordable, and of good quality, whilst also net-zero. This has often posed a problem for House building in the past.
Rob strongly argued that ethical house-building is necessary for the future of the industry, he noted that the industry is not seen as glamorous to many people and that a strong ethical component will encourage people to see the benefits of working in housing. Rob continued that consumers must drive demand for net-zero housing to encourage other companies to follow Thakeham’s lead.
Siobhain raised the need for more housebuilding as a priority for the next Labour government, and was pleased that companies like Thakeham are taking a lead in this area. Siobhain noted that legislation was lagging behind what Thakeham were doing, and that sorting supply chain issues was a common theme across many SME4Labour events.
Sandy Martin continued that house-building was an important demand for the next election, but that it must be done in a way that support and benefits local communities or we will face a backlash. Cllrs from across the UK echoed this, there is a need for more affordable housing and it must be net-zero, but often where to build the houses trumps environmental concerns.
The meeting praised the work that Thakeham have done, both on net-zero and to reach out to local politicians about their work. The hope is that when Labour are in government we will work with companies such as Thakeham to provide the Housing the country needs.
Speakers:
