Committees

Guidelines Steering Group

White Paper for the INREV Guidelines out for consultation

With the White Paper for the INREV Guidelines out with the industry for consultation until the end of the year, the Guidelines Steering Group can take a short breather.

It is this group, formed especially for the Guidelines revision project one year ago, which was charged with ensuring the project came together. This included reviewing the draft of separate projects across INREV’s committees and bringing the threads of the different work together.

“We looked at the content by committees, defined the structure of the document and ensured the overall quality. We need to make sure it was integrated. The committees have been working in isolation and we were there to make sure it had a consistent voice,” said Michael Hornsby, a member of the Guidelines Steering Group, and Real Estate sector Leader at Ernst & Young, which worked as an advisor to the Guidelines project.

As well as the content, the group oversaw consistency of language, structured and updated definitions used across the document. It also dealt with the parts of the Guidelines that did not fall under the committees’ remit, which included a new compliance framework structure to help fund managers show compliance.

The delivery part of the mission is complete and with more than 250 members participating in a series of roundtables across Europe to provide feedback, the consultation process is well underway. “We are grateful to the individual members who attended the workshops. We would now like them to act as ambassadors for the project within their offices to help provide us with company views on the White Paper,” said Hornsby.

He added that the news from the industry is so far good. “Feedback is that there are no fatal flaws - all the workshops have been positive. We’ve also picked up some really useful editorial feedback such as links between different parts of the Guidelines, how to explain concepts and improve definitions.”

The steering group along with the various project groups will be properly back in action in the New Year to review the industry feedback and incorporate comments where required. “There is still time to put forward your views and this is really important as the Guidelines need to be relevant to ensure they are implemented by the industry,” said Hornsby.

There is still time to put forward your views on the Guidelines.

The deadline for submission is 31 December 2013 and the finalised INREV Guidelines will be released at the INREV Annual Conference in Berlin in April.