Enjoy the View: 2020

The following has been adapted from my speech for the 2017 Homes for Scotland Annual Lunch:

When I was a little girl, my dad used to take me hill walking. We lived in Balerno so the Pentland Hills were our go to place. Now, there's one hill called Black Hill. This was his particular favourite – but it certainly wasn’t mine!

This hill looks fairly easy - it's smooth, not too high for 6 year old legs and has paths made by sheep all over it. But my ex-army dad loves a challenge; he insisted that we just go straight up!

I don't know if any of you know this hill, but let me tell you - it was a nightmare! There are so many false summits that I felt that I would never get to the top. Just when I thought, yes, we're nearly there, I'd come over the brow of the hill, ready to celebrate, and there'd be another steep incline ahead!

When I did eventually get to the top, I was invariably too exhausted to take the time to enjoy the view and I didn’t recognise my achievement!          

And this is how I think being in the home building industry feels like today. There have been so many false summits over the last few months:

•  You couldn’t get building inspectors to give you habitation certificates
• You couldn’t get meters installed
• The Registers of Scotland closed overnight
• All but non-essential construction was asked to stop
• Staff could be furloughed but that didn’t help self employed trades and suppliers
• CIBLS scheme not supporting home builders 

And that was just the start of it!

So when we did eventually get sites restarted and sales offices reopened last week we had no energy left to reflect on our achievements.

We, as an industry don't give ourselves time to celebrate what we do - there's always another problem to solve - but we absolutely should. We need to recognise that we are one of the most resilient industries in Scotland.  

We emerged from the 2008 financial crisis stronger, more passionate and more determined to succeed than ever before. That stood us in good stead to weather the lockdown and will also be crucial in the months ahead as the economic fallout becomes clearer.

We should remember that the body of people that make up the Homes for Scotland membership is hugely important to the economy of Scotland, as well as to the government's housing delivery programme.  

We will continue to keep reminding the decision-makers of this and will continue trying to smooth out those false summits so that you all have easier journeys up that hill.

And remember to enjoy the view!