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DEBATE COLLABORATION
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
BUILDING SOLID PARTNERSHIPS
Collaboration is one of the strengths of Lancashire’s construction and development sector. We brought our expert panel to Burnley’s Turf Moor to discuss the importance of successful partnerships, with the support of Barnfield, a business making a real difference in the county through its joint ventures
PRESENT: Richard Slater - Lancashire Business View (Chair) David Barrowclough - Campbell Driver Partnerships Mark Clarkson - Eckersley Property
Why are partnerships so important to the sector?
TW: Partnerships are something you develop over the years, both private and public sector. They give you continuity of work, you get to know how each other works and how to work together in collaboration.
Public sector partnerships are very different to private sector ones. You work through the authorities, some really engage in it and want to do it, others do it because they feel to have to. They can be difficult because administrations can change.
A lot of local authorities, because they are starved of cash, wouldn’t be able to carry out as much regeneration work without the partnerships.
SJ: As a council we have many partnerships and a successful track record in developing them. In recent times we’ve developed regeneration partnerships. We want to look at partners that will help us with our ambitions to develop strategic sites, bring forward stalled sites.
Tracey Clavell-Bate - Barnfield Developments Matthew Guest - UCLan Simon Jones - Blackburn and Darwen Council Alex Kenwright - EG Group
We look to partners that can bring those skills to support the council as well as capital. There are challenges for local authorities in raising capital at times, especially for regeneration projects, and bringing that private sector capital as well as that expertise is important.
DS: Usually the partnership starts at the top level, but there are opportunities for partnerships all the way down to the guys on the ground, to the planning officers who are getting into the detail of project. If the aims and objectives don’t filter all the way down through the partnership it can be a struggle.
DB: Partnership works particularly well in east Lancashire because of the financial difficulty in making something commercially viable. Partnerships enable that and bring together people like Barnfield and the local authorities. You need that partnership to drive regeneration.
IS: Resource can be a big issue. Local authorities don’t have that knowledge and experience and that’s a big reason why they go to people like Barnfield, to provide that missing link.
Nicola Phelps - WHN Solicitors Deborah Smith - Smith & Love Ian Summersgill - Linchpin Tim Webber - Barnfield Construction
MC: We’re seeing a real issue with the employment market and a lack of continuity. You can have a six-month project with a council officer, they move somewhere else, somebody new comes in after a delay and you lose all that time and start again effectively.
Trust is also a big thing. It takes local authorities an awful long time to trust the private sector and to work with you. There is that element of ‘us and them’ a little bit.
MG: The word ‘relationship’ is there in the nature of partnerships. It is being able to really connect with someone, understand what their challenge is and discuss how we can work together, where we should and shouldn’t be involved.
The government’s Shared Prosperity Fund has really quick turnaround times and puts people together effectively. You have to work really quickly to develop relationships, to get to the end goal.
DS: If you go into it asking ‘what can I get out of this partnership’ that is a flawed approach. If your approach is, ‘How can I help you? How can I make your life easier. How can we
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