In order to succeed, Rayner must listen to housebuilders

Labour has promised to build 1.5 million new homes but for too long, the private sector has been regarded with suspicion, It’s time there was an ve rethink

- Chris Blackhurst

In my corner of southwest London, it is impossible to avoid Berkeley Homes. Their boards are everywhere, popping up with new developments of apartments and houses. For the SW postcodes, read right across London, Birmingham and the South East. Berkeley has got them cornered, and, as today's company figures show, it is powering ahead, leading an industry that has been struggling with red tape, rising costs, a shortage of suitable sites and an uncertain market.

Berkeley has always been a firm built on disciplined execution and rigid control of costs. Under CEO Rob Perrins, that focus has been even more firmly enforced. It's a tightness that is reflected in the news that Perrins is to move up to become executive chair of the Berkeley Group, on the retirement of Michael Dobson.

As chief executive since 2009, Perrins has overseen a period of sustained strong performance and growth. The City is not always approving of CEOs switching to chair, but in this case it makes perfect sense: Perrins knows the company, market and industry backwards; he's also au fait with the complex and often fraught regulatory landscape.

To appoint someone from outside at this moment of great change, with a government committed to driving housebuilding on a huge scale, seems like madness. If anyone knows what requires unlocking to make that key policy even remotely achievable, it is Perrins.

It's likely that Berkeley shareholders will listen to the reasons for, and approve. There is simply too much risk involved in going down another route, so why take the risk? Investors, though, are just one audience. The other people who should fall upon Perrins' experience and knowledge are ministers.