Responding to the announcement that Liz Truss will be the new prime minister, Propertymark is calling on her to focus on increasing housing supply and making homes more energy efficient.

They were the top two issues in its recent online poll of property professionals who were asked their immediate priorities for the sector.

Nathan Emerson, Propertymark’s chief executive, said: “The spiralling cost of household gas and electricity bills has put the energy efficiency of our existing housing stock into sharp focus. With unilateral EPC rating targets looming, there is currently no long-term plan that sets out how they will be achieved.

“Propertymark is a strong advocate of making homes more energy efficient as the best solution to bringing down bills. However, it is unlikely that significant progress can be made until Ministers better understand the current housing stock and then apply realistic targets based on properties’ individual characteristics with sustained funding for homeowners.”

On housing supply, Emerson added: “It’s no surprise that boosting housing supply topped our poll. Our latest market insight reports show for every rental property available there are an average of 11 applicants, while home buyers are outnumbering sellers by seven to one. This is creating affordability issues, particularly in the private rented sector.

“We believe that gap can be closed through measures that bring the many tens of thousands of long-term empty properties back and the introduction of focussed targets for new homes that are based on an identified need for each tenure across the country.”