The other is Labour Yimby, a grassroots group started by activists, which drew a crowd for its first parliamentary reception and is backed by some of the most vociferous housing campaigners from the new intake: Milton Keynes North’s Chris Curtis, Chipping Barnet’s Dan Tomlinson and Earley and Woodley’s Yuan Yang.
So I did some googling and I fell down a real rabbit hole, so I’m making that everyone else’s problem as well. Apologies for the long comment posted nearly a day later.
It’s surprisingly hard to find any direct info on this ‘Labour YIMBY’ group online (the name doesn’t help). Their website is very sparse (and also doesn’t use HTTPS for whatever reason), which seems to be where the Guardian is getting this idea they’re a ‘grassroots’ group from. The only other info on their website is a mailto link for marc.harris@labouryimby.org.uk[1]. The website was registered in April and their Twitter account was created in May, this is also the only source of official communication I could find of the group. Politico puts the launch of the group on 9 July at an event held in the Walker’s of Whitehall, however. This doting report by Chris Worrall tell us that consultancy group College Green Group and construction lobby group LPDF[2] sponsored the event and made speeches. Ethan Shone’s reporting is more damning:
While Parliament was in recess, [Labour YIMBY] held a summer reception along with the Fabian Society think tank. The event was hosted and sponsored by international lobbying firm FTI Consulting, which represents Keepmoat Homes, property developer Hammerson, “whole life cycle real estate company” Impact Capital Group and asset managers such as Macquarie and Vanguard. FTI employee Abdi Duale, who is currently standing for reelection to Labour’s National Executive Committee, gave a speech at the reception. The YIMBYs held another reception, this time in Parliament, this week. Duale was again present, as was Mike Katz, the director of lobbying firm Field Consulting, who is also chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, and Paul Brocklehurst, the chair of LPDF, an industry lobbying group for some of the biggest developers.
This second reception is the one mentioned in the Guardian article, one sponsored by self-described ‘build-to-rent’ group Get Living, a group who had to pay £18 million for flammable-style cladding in January. Despite their young age and supposed grassroots-ness, they were able to get quite a few big name for this reception, including a minister:
At the Labour YIMBY reception in parliament’s Churchill room, including a speaker from property management firm GetLiving … Work and Pensions Minister Andrew Western … Labour MPs Emily Thornberry, Stella Creasy, Chris Curtis, Yuan Yang, James Asser, Tom Rutland, Kanishka Narayan, Mike Reader, Uma Kumaran, Sonia Kumar, Gurinder Josan, Deirdre Costigan, Sean Woodcock, Johanna Baxter, Dawn Butler, Jim Dickson and Ruth Cadbury, who was working the room lobbying for transport committee chair … Labour Together’s Charles White, Can Vargas and Jack Shaw … NEC’s Abdi Duale … JLM chief Mike Katz … Labour YIMBY Chair Marc Harris … Sodali & Co’s Simon Petar … Airbus’ Tom Williams … Hacks Josiah Mortimer, Jonn Elledge, Lee Harpin and Tom Scotson.
Personally, I wouldn’t consider a group of Labour insiders that’s able to attract sponsorships from industry lobby groups to be a ‘grassroots group’.
