View from the riverbank: Could uncertainty give way to optimism?

Before the EU referendum in 2016, members of UK Prop Social’s predecessor, the First Tuesday Club, voted on whether they wished to remain or leave.

In our poll, remain won by 61 – 11 votes. Yet, despite this indication that the property industry in this area was heavily in favour of remaining in the EU, there was a sense of relief last week when the election result cleared the path for Boris Johnson’s Brexit.

So after a period of politics as extraordinary as any in the living memory of most people, it is perhaps timely that the industry is looking to the future with more optimism as we approach a new decade.

There are still plenty of hurdles awaiting the Thames Valley’s biggest developments and infrastructure projects but there seems to be a feeling that the number of obstacles to progress is now fewer.

Not that Heathrow expansion has a clear path or that the full arrival of Crossrail will be any earlier, but anecdotally it’s clear there has long been a sense of uncertainty, causing a reluctance to commit to big schemes.

One plan which may still have an uncertain future is that of the former Wantage MP, Ed Vaizey, who planned to set up an All Party Parliamentary Group for the Thames Valley before he stood down as an MP.

If his successor, David Johnston, picks that one up this region could benefit from a united voice at a time when, as Rob Allaway reports, Boris is likely to reward those in the north whose support helped give him such a majority.

But there remains a feeling that a dark cloud has lifted a little. In November, Haslams Estate Agent’s managing director Steve Woodford, said, depending on what happens with Brexit, the market could fly.

Campbell Gordon director Keith Wise told us at the Figgy Pudding Christmas lunch on December 3, this year looks likely being a quiet one in the local office market and that would appear to be accurate.

It would seem there may now be hope that next year will be a little noisier.