commercial property 2017 Thames Valley Property Forum: highlights


A region facing challenging changes


The Thames Valley faces uncertain Brexit times, but it is probably better positioned to overcome any fast- approaching economic challenges than any other UK region.


Delegates at the Green Park Conference Centre in Reading heard a common theme from various authoritative TVPF 2017 speakers and panelists – the era will bring significant change and seminal choices for businesses. The region must shape its own destiny.


The region’s infrastructure – properties, transportation and digital communications – needs to be ready to underpin the future Thames Valley economy, and its businesses need to be ready to make astute strategic decisions in order to forge commercial opportunity out of economic and social change.


Major change is on its way . . .


Don’t doubt Brexit’s potential impact, not least on overseas perceptions and decisions concerning the UK, but technological advancement is already driving rapid global change, highlighted keynote speaker Anthony Hilton, senior business columnist of the Evening Standard and The Independent.


“The degree of change we are about to face in the world of work is going to be so transformational that past experience might well be a handicap.


“McKinsey has forecast that 20% of today’s business models will be obsolete within five years”. For 10-year-old children today, 60% of their adult jobs have not yet been invented – “chilling facts to get your mind around.”


Future technology implications for companies, business-styles, workers’ needs, infrastructure and buildings would be fundamental.


“But, if the world is about the knowledge economy, connectivity and communications, then there is probably not a better place to be than the Thames Valley. It has all the ingredients, and you are starting from a far better place than the rest of the country.”


With post-Brexit London arguably losing its lustre, Hilton suggested the M4 corridor – “far more


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entrepreneurial, creative and dynamic than other regions near London” – could be the obvious beneficiary of outward-looking employee expertise.


…. but will we be ready for it?


Panelists CBI Thames Valley director Eddie Curzon and Thames Valley Berkshire LEP CEO Tim Smith agreed that the region was highly attractive and well-set to seize this opportunity, but Heathrow expansion and its western rail link from Slough, plus a third Thames bridge at Reading remained long-running infrastructure hurdles to overcome.


Both stressed that public funding for such projects had yet to be allocated and with continuing UK-EU political uncertainty, the private sector needed to show tangible support to ensure the


Anthony Hilton


projects were delivered: “that the local economy we all enjoy is sustained”.


Royal Elm Park and Reading FC chief executive Nigel Howe highlighted the regional need for more housing and community-linked facilities. “We need to drive all these things through and continue to provide more.”


A later ‘West of London Travel Plan’ session saw these calls for action strongly supported.


“You cannot presume that just because the Thames Valley business case is good, the funding will come along,” said Victoria Hills (CEO of London’s largest regeneration project at Old Oak Common and Park Royal) highlighting that other UK regions have now got competitive collective voices lobbying government for infrastructure funding.


Malcolm Parsons (Western Rail Link to Heathrow) and Rob Gray (Heathrow Airport) both presented very positive economic reasons for their projects, but urged Thames Valley stakeholders not to be complacent about their delivery.


Scott Witchalls of Peter Brett Associates suggested the region suffered from paralysis by analysis. “We have to get better at making decisions and just doing things. Now we are under threat from other UK regions, and the biggest threat to non- achievement is ourselves – we’ll only have ourselves to blame.”


Discussing Thames Valley challenges are (left to right): Malcolm Parsons, Rob Gray, Scott Witchalls, Victoria Hills, and Keith Mitchell (Peter Brett Associates)


Change is actually already happening . . .


Other TVPF sessions included updates, discussion and mention of current regional business park, office and town regenerations (Slough, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Wokingham and Reading), new industrial, residential and mixed developments, the Thames Valley Science Park at Shinfield, smart motorways, HS2 connection at Old Oak Common, Elizabeth Line, GWR electrification, the regional advance of ultrafast internet fibre connectivity, plus upcoming local plans and the Reading 2050 initiative.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – OCTOBER 2017


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