Paul Belfield and Emily Beaven of Rund Partnership joined 300 fellow property professional to witness the heated 90 minute LandAid Debate last week, chaired by the BBC’s Sarah Montague.

With the forthcoming General Election, Steven Norris, Alan Johnson MP, Baroness Shirley Williams and Baroness Jenny Jones didn’t pull any punches when it came to arguing their parties’ key policies. London’s housing crisis was inevitably a hotly disputed issue. The Green Party’s Jenny Jones shunned the prospect of building on the Green Belt, whilst former Liberal Democrats leader Shirley Williams argued the case of returning to post-war prefabs.

Labour MP Alan Johnson called for a land value tax, a proposal quickly rebutted by the Conservative’s Steven Norris who claimed it would be a deterrent to development. Norris asserted that too much democracy in the planning system was to blame for the current housing situation, a statement which won the approval of most of the audience. Further insight into the debate can be found online through LandAid.

This event raised £35,000 for disadvantaged young people in the UK. LandAid is Rund Partnership’s chosen charity of the year for 2015.