Estates Gazette • 20 September 2025 • Editor’s comment

I don’t remember the “big bang” in the City of London in the mid-1980s. I was too small, distracted by the big bangs I was making myself smashing toys together. But I know plenty of people who do remember it. As a young(ish) financial journalist, I picked the brains of investment bankers and traders for anniversary features about the ways in which that period of deregulation lit a fire under the UK’s financial services industry.

I’m not sure what a “big bang” of similar impact would look like for real estate. But it’s hard to argue against new research this week from New London Architecture that says the sector needs something that dramatic to help it unleash its economic potential.

The figures are staggering. NLA and its research partners crunched the numbers across architecture, planning, construction, consultancy and more, and found that if we consider the “built environment” as a sector in its own right, it contributes an annual £568bn of gross value added to the British economy.

To put that in perspective, it’s double the GVA of financial services and four times that of the creative industries, which got their own push in the Blair and Brown years. It’s a quarter of the national total.

“This is something that a ‘build, build, build’ government trying to [encourage the development of] homes should get behind – a ‘big bang’ for the built environment,” Nick McKeogh, chief executive of the NLA, told me over a catch-up in the London Centre ahead of this week’s London Real Estate Forum, where the research was launched.

He urged the government to “classify the built environment as a growth sector for the economy… an economic engine, not just an economic facilitator”.

It’s exactly the kind of rallying cry the sector needs. All-encompassing and clear in what needs to change. Real estate works because of all its industries pulling together. There’s no reason that a sector-wide view shouldn’t be the norm and its economic weight acknowledged.

OK, the name is perhaps still an issue. Nick told me he’s not entirely convinced that “built environment” is right. But it’s in the research now, so we’re going with it. And whatever words we’re using, you can’t ignore the numbers.

I read once that writer Ralph Waldo Emerson would greet old friends by saying “What has become clear to you since last we met?” I always liked that. I’ll tell you what’s become clear to me since I last wrote this column: the winners of this year’s Estates Gazette Awards.

The Tube strikes scuppered plans to get all of our judges together in person but last week we convened on Teams (proper lockdown vibes) to pitch, debate, argue and tease our way through all of the categories ahead of this year’s ceremony on 20 November.

It was hard work but was also, I hope the judges would agree, fun. To explore so many ambitious, successful businesses, so many blockbuster deals, so many (genuinely) life-changing corporate initiatives, was awe-inspiring and an honour. And with no spoilers, I’m confident that we have an amazing and worthy list of winners.

Some of them are surprising – there is proof in our picks that underdogs can triumph and that it isn’t always the biggest pound sign that gets the biggest prize. Some feel a little more expected, and even there, their achievements were hard to ignore. All were put through their paces as our judges pored over their pitches. I’m excited to reveal their names in November. If you haven’t booked your place yet, head to https://estatesgazetteawards.co.uk.

MISSION STATEMENT: Estates Gazette is the UK’s longest-established source of news and analysis for the commercial real estate industry. Through our magazine, website and events, we inform, educate and entertain a community of industry professionals by bringing them the latest deals, developments and the trends shaping their work. Our aim is to help readers stay ahead of the market and identify new opportunities for growth. We believe in fair and rigorous reporting and expect to be held to the same high standards we apply when holding real estate companies large and small to account.