At today's Main Meeting of EBG at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which Charles attended with me, we had updates from the CLA, the Scottish CLA, British Property Federation and Lord Inglewood. Too many issues to report here but it was reassuring to hear that many of our frustrations with policy and regulation were shared with others and the professional bodies who represent Estates are, in the main, on the case. The Localism Bill is an opportunity for estates and Big Society is something that we have been engaged with for a few hundred years. We should look to embrace these shifts in decentralising power and work harder with local communities of interest across all operations. One area not so encouraging is the emerging thinking around Community Right To Buy - which although great in principle, may result in unintended consequences of estates not letting communities have access to facilities in fear of them being targeted by local pressure groups for purchase. The fundamental principle of property rights is being challenged and EBG and Clinton Devon are campaigning for changes to the wording of this proposed legislation.
The key note speaker today was Charles Moore, journalist and previous editor of Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator. Absolutely riveting. Charles gave his thoughts on the Coalition' workings, the individuals in it and how it all may end... One common theme was that although a commentator once said "...consistency is a sign of an unsound mind...". the seemingly continuous changing of the ground rules all the time does not allow businesses to plan - especially as we struggle to find some certainty in order to develop plans to get back on the road to recovery and out of the recession. Fiddling with 00s of policies and legislation in virtually every area of government - including the UK constitution itself (watch out for radical House of Lords Reform) is not helpful but that is exactly what is happening. Supporting wealth creation activity is the only way out of the mess we find ourselves in was the message. Interesting insights into David Cameron's management style - the concept of chairman rather than Chief Executive and the pros and cons of both approaches...
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