40 IN VIEW BUILT ENVIRONMENT
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Work was also needed to upgrade the grid to feed renewable energy into the system. Courtney said: “It is about getting ahead of this, instead of waiting for the problems to arrive.
“If you are looking at reaching net zero by 2030, we are not going to achieve it on the current UK system. We are going to have to look at overhead lines and things like that.”
John Chesworth, managing partner at Preston based law firm Harrison Drury and chair of the Preston Partnership, said infrastructure issues, including east-west connectivity, were holding back progress in the county.
He added it was vital that Lancashire’s built environment delivered great places to work, live and play as it was easy for employees to be attracted to Manchester, which was well connected by rail from Preston.
John said: “The government keeps talking about growth all the time. Lancashire has to demonstrate it can deliver growth. So, when we are talking to central government, we can tell
them we have a growth plan and a strategy that works right across the county and evidence that by pointing at projects we have delivered.
“It’s also saying to the public and private sectors when you invest here and put a big project here look at what we can deliver. Having a track record to demonstrate to external investors is important.”
He went on: “We have to guard against being too parochial, we need inward investment and we have to demonstrate to people outside Lancashire this a place to come and spend and invest your money.
“The ‘big ticket’ projects, their delivery and the impact they have needs to be shown to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. We have to demonstrate far outside the county that we are a great place to invest in.”
Linda Dean is deputy principal for apprenticeships, business and people at Blackpool and The Fylde College and managing director of the new Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology (IoT).
She told the conference skills providers in the county looked to work with the built environment sector to make sure its businesses had the workforce equipped with the knowledge required, not just for today but in years to come.
Linda said Lancashire was “fortunate” to have its colleges and universities and the IoT saw them coming together to collaborate and have conversations with employers to build the programmes to deliver those skills.
She said: “It’s the people that make the built environment work. The people that plan it, that build it, then run it. The people bring it alive.”
Linda also referenced a new Skills England report which revealed building and civil engineering is expected to have the most growth by 2035, with 1.4 million new jobs expected.
And she added: “In terms of the colleges, we are absolutely focused on what businesses need and how we can work with them.”
Courtney Prestage
John Chesworth
Linda Dean
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