A MESSAGE TO OUR LEADERS
Lancashire Business View asked all delegates to the conference to share the issues they would like addressed by local and national government leaders.
Here are just some of the things that they want to see action on. We will be sharing them with Whitehall and County Hall and our district councils.
• More urgency in legislation and in planning • More resources and investment in our planning departments • Less red tape around planning and more focus on the future • The creation of a truly regional vision
• A stronger focus on talents, skills and training to create a talent pipeline
• Government investment to accelerate the green agenda • Sustainability to be locked into policies
• Better central government communication of policy changes to allow businesses to make sound investment decisions
• Less green belt development and more focus on town centre brownfield sites, with urban regeneration also a priority
• More engagement with bodies such as Heritage England, Homes England and local councils
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Suzy Jones
Suzy Jones’ role with award-winning regeneration specialist Urban Splash is to look far into the future. So where does she see Lancashire in 2050?
She told the conference: “I hope we will be celebrating the ability of Lancashire to share all of its expertise and knowledge with the rest of the country.
“That this area can become a demonstrator for best practice of how collaboration, working together and having great vision can absolutely transform a place.”
Manchester headquartered Urban Splash specialises in transformation. It has been at the cutting edge of property development for three decades – delivering stand-out projects through its unique creative approach to regeneration.
These include bringing the art-deco gem that is the Midland Hotel in Morecambe back to life.
Suzy joined Urban Splash in 2020 and established ‘Future Lab’, a research and innovation programme with a remit to look beyond immediate horizons at ways people may want and need to live in the future.
From that came her current role as the company’s ‘director of the future’. Suzy, who lives in Lancashire, told the conference Urban Splash started with a willingness to think differently about places and to take a risk.
She said: “The ethos of Urban Splash is not to take the status quo for granted, not to assume just because that is the way we have been doing it for the last 30 years that is the way we should do it now.
“There’s always a willingness to listen to anybody’s ideas, to be ambitious, take risks, to try things that are new that no-one has tried before if there is a belief that’s the right thing to do.
“We see opportunity where other people see problems and that has been the story of Urban Splash for the last 30 years.”
Suzy said that the business worked on buildings where value had been lost because of the low perception of them and added: “For people to invest there has to be that opportunity to build value.”
Looking at the Midland Hotel development she said it had acted as a trigger for wider regeneration in the town: “It was a classic stranded asset, it had been sitting on the waterfront in Morecambe, one of the most scenic, most beautiful locations in this county, if not the whole of the UK.
“The view from there is extraordinary. How you can’t see the value in that location baffles me. It had been sat there derelict for a really long time.
“Everywhere has these opportunities and the opportunity for Lancashire is to identify them all and think about them collectively.
“It is about identifying what is unique about your place and where you can build that value. Be ambitious, but in your own way.”
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