This is the last daily Dispatch from this year’s UKREiiF conference in Leeds.

The session was packed with insights and opportunities to connect with built environment professionals and learn from the great work that’s happening across the sector. Despite the real challenges facing the economy, the event exuded positivity and gave me confidence that we can make a positive difference as a sector.

Personal highlights included connecting with someone who went to my old school in west Wales, and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham sharing our post yesterday.

Downsides: losing my accommodation due to a ‘double booking’ which left me scrambling to find somewhere else. I heard some horror stories through the week from others who’d experienced similar.

Our regular Dispatch returns on 6 June. We hope you find our newsletter useful. If you have thoughts or suggestions on what you’d like us to cover in the future, let us know in the comments or get in touch.

Why progress matters more than process for devolution

England’s ‘devolution revolution’ promises wide-ranging and lasting change to local government. But its impact on the ground will determine its success.

This was a welcome theme from the speech and discussion at UKREiiF yesterday (22 May) with the man leading the charge, local government minister Jim McMahon (pictured, below).

Mr McMahon’s address laid out a blizzard of changes and programmes designed to hand more powers to regional mayors and establish new devolved authorities in parts of England that don’t have them.

The prize on offer could be worth £55 billion in additional income every year, Mr McMahon told delegates.

This overhaul runs alongside planned local government reorganisation (or LGR in government language), which will see district and county councils replaced with unitary authorities by the end of this parliament.

“We’re empowering our local mayors to deliver a better future for our country, raising living standards, putting more money back into the pockets of working people, and putting government back in the service of local people,” said Mr McMahon.

While the reorganisations absorb time and energy, real results should be the measure of success, say those who’ve lived through devolution in other parts of the UK.

“Devolution focused on outcomes, rather than institution building, is the prize on offer,” said Scottish Labour MSP Daniel Johnson.

“That is what I think Scotland is missing out on.”

How narrratives support great places

Exeter faces devolution while getting on with providing thousands of new homes and decent jobs for a successful city.

It has an amazing story to tell, with partners who are ready to share it. Its offer includes a world-leading university, a bright and growing local population, superb spaces for businesses to grow and fabulous places to live, learn and spend time.

Stuart Brocklehurst, University of Exeter’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Innovation, said the institution has more of the world’s top climate scientists than any of its peers. The city also leads the way in areas like diabetes research and nanotechnology.

Whatever form devolution takes in Devon, the task will be to build on the legacy of a vibrant and successful place, strongly supported by great partnership working.

“We’ve got a really great city that drives the economy,” said Exeter City Council’s Director of Place, Ian Collinson.

“We’re going to keep bringing in the homes and jobs and continue the success for the next 10 years and beyond.”

Peerless, innovative, ambitious, collaborative. For all the talk of big numbers, LGR, GVA, units and mega deals, Exeter told one of the most coherent stories I heard at UKREiiF.

It highlights that storytelling has a vital role in play in supporting successful places. As we work through the marketing material shared at the conference, we’ll come back to this topic in future posts.

Things we’ve heard

“From offshore wind and tidal to hydrogen and advanced nuclear, the region is home to some of the most exciting and scalable projects in the country. What we saw at UKREiiF was a region with the vision, capability and investment readiness to help the UK become a global clean energy superpower.”

Tom Hayes, MP for Bournemouth East and the UK’s Energy Mission Champion, speaking on the Great South West’s vision for the area including Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Cornwall.

“You can’t ‘build, build, build’ without skill, skill, skill.”

Chief executive of Harworth Group Lynda Shillaw explains how skills have overtaken planning as the top concern for industry colleagues.

This week, we’re sharing daily updates from UKREiiF - the UK’s biggest event focused on property, investment and regeneration.

We hope it helps our contacts stay connected to some of the discussion points. Our regular Dispatch returns on 6 June.

As ever, we hope you find our newsletter useful. If you have thoughts or suggestions on what you’d like us to cover in the future, let us know in the comments or get in touch.

Why transport must drive growth, not choke it

“Funding for transport is essential to growth. Cutting transport is choking growth.”

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s message on the importance of reliable, affordable, good travel options into and between cities sets out a challenge to government three weeks ahead of the Spending Review.

Mr Burnham spoke on a panel discussion about transport infrastructure, explaining recent changes to Greater Manchester’s Bee Network bus service, which Greater Manchester Combined Authority runs.

Operating a regional public bus franchise makes the service more accountable and reliable while kick-starting a culture change, he said. Adding weight to quality over price to bus service contracts is helping to drive improvements, he added.

“Public control starts to change everything about the pace of delivery,” said Mr Burnham.

Anyone who’s tried using public transport to get around the country knows that the pace of delivery needs to step up before people get out of their cars and onto more sustainable modes of travel.

First Bus managing director Janette Bell, whose company runs services for 1.5 million passengers a day, said that the average speed of those services is around seven miles an hour.

Others delegates I’ve spoken to recount grisly stories of cramped carriages with no working toilets or places to sit on trains to Leeds.

It’s no great surprise, therefore, to hear that a basic straw poll of attendees found that around 40% of respondents had driven to UKREiiF this week. For an event with 16,000 attendees, that’s no endorsement of our transport system.

And it’s why bodies like Business West regularly report transport as the number one bugbear amongst its members.

Bus back better?

Minister for Local Transport Simon Lightwood spoke before the panel session of government efforts to provide ‘better buses everywhere’ as part several measures to provide better, joined up travel.

Investment of £300 million for active travel, creating Great British Railways to oversee services and train tracks, and giving local authorities more control over transport all feature on the roadmap.

The Spending Review on 11 June is a key marker on the journey to better public transport.

But change also needs to happen quickly if people are to start trusting and using public transport services.

With quick wins in mind, I asked the five panellists what changes they’d like to see by this time next year.

Sarah Spink, Midlands Connect’s Strategic Partnerships Lead, mentioned progress on the Midlands Rail Hub.

Andy Burnham opted for bringing Glossop in the Peak District into the Bee Network, connecting the area to Manchester Piccadilly.

Laura Shoaf, chair of Great British Railways’ shadow board, mentioned service improvements and more people travelling by train (aka ‘modal shift’).

Janette Bell mentioned service improvements and progress on bus fleet electrification.

Alex Hinchcliffe, Mer managing director, called for investment in making charging points more accessible and affordable.

Here’s hoping for progress on all these points, and others. Wishing everyone safe and stress-free travel in the meantime.

Connect with us at UKREiiF

We’ll be at UKREiiF until tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, and aim to provide another newsletter tomorrow.

If you’re in Leeds and want to catch up, of if you’d like to share or discuss anything, please leave a comment or drop us a line.

Contact Ben

Things we’ve heard

“If we fail on the 1.5 million [new homes target for England], or if we succeed in hitting the 1.5 million but it’s at any cost, we will have failed. And no government will ever touch this challenge again.”

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook (pictured, below) explains why success is about more than hitting the housing numbers. Reforming the planning system to enable swifter progress should come with good quality new development, he said.

“The key thing is communication. You can’t have change if people don’t understand what you do.”

Tritax Big Box Developments’ director Katie Howe during a Midlands Engine panel discussion on sustainable development.

“We’re delivering 25,000 homes in the next five years. We could do twice that number if we have investment coming in.”

Homes for the South West board member and Magna Housing Group chief executive Selina White at the launch of the regional housing prospectus.

This week, we’re sharing daily updates from UKREiiF, the UK’s biggest event focused on property, investment and regeneration.

We hope it helps our contacts stay connected to some of the discussion points. Our regular Dispatch returns on 6 June.

As ever, we hope you find our newsletter useful. If you have thoughts or suggestions on what you’d like us to cover in the future, let us know in the comments or get in touch.

Delivering on growth: what success looks like for housing

Now’s the time to deliver, so get on and build, build, build.

Angela Rayner’s keynote speech to built environment professionals at UKREiiF yesterday (20 May) laid out a challenge to a sector which is key to the government’s growth ambitions.

The Deputy Prime Minister’s pledge to deliver a ‘stretching’ commitment of 1.5 million new homes in England before the end of the decade is well aired.

A raft of policy changes around devolution, planning reform, support for new towns and investment in social housing are geared towards this aim.

But, beyond the numbers, what will success look like in a few years? And why does it matter if we achieve it, or not?

Although her speech was light on specifics for those who follow housing discussions closely, Rayner set out some indicators in her speech to delegates.

“Firstly, if we get more and more homes – in every part of the country, including here in West Yorkshire - built long into the future too. We can't just ramp-up housebuilding over the next few years.

“Secondly, if more people have a home they can afford. And we bring crippling costs down.

“Thirdly, if we’re ensuring all homes are safe, secure and warm. And we’re driving down bills for working people.

“And finally, if we’re tackling the shameful homelessness crisis that is destroying the life chances of so many.”

National ambition, local delivery

Long-lasting, plentiful, affordable. We look forward to working with clients and their partners to deliver this ambition.

The cost of failure, as Sir Michael Lyons indicated in a keynote address about the government’s plans to build several new towns, is stark for those affected.

Twenty eight per cent of aduls aged between 20 and 34 still lived with their parents in 2023, Sir Michael told delegates, a vivid example of a ‘broken promise’ to a generation.

Turning this around requires local commitment and leadership from mayors and combined authorities in places like the West of England. The region, which includes Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset, is tasked along with other combined authorities to deliver a spatial plan outlining destinations for new homes and transport investment in the coming decades.

The West of England doesn’t have a happy history of spatial planning, as its Combined Authority chief executive Stephen Peacock acknowledged in a morning address.

The challenge locally in making things happen is as much about bringing people and businesses with you on the journey as it is in creating the opportunities to invest.

For all of the talk at UKREiiF in the coming days about big opportunities and mega deals, putting in the hard yards to make a noticeable difference on the ground matters too.

Not as exciting as heading grabbing investments, it’s true. But if people remain on housing waiting lists and stuck at the mercy of ‘rural quality bus services’ at the end of the decade, Angela Rayner’s success measures will sound hollow to many people by the decade’s end.

“The public doesn’t get [us], and that’s not their fault,” said Stephen when speaking about the 30% voter turnout in the recent election for West of England mayor.

That gets to the heart of the challenge for local mayors.

If they are going to build confidence and support for their measures, they must invest time and energy in taking communities with them.

Arianne shared thoughts about the collaboration challenge facing local leaders in our last newsletter. Tackling this would give them a much greater chance of meeting Rayner’s success measures.

As she told the hall, it’s time to crack on.

Connect with us at UKREiiF

It’s been great catching up with people here and we’re looking forward to hearing more updates from places and industry leaders.

If you’re in Leeds and want to catch up, of if you’d like to share or discuss anything, please leave a comment drop us a line.

Contact Ben