Welcome spotlight on Yorkshire must be seized at UKREiiF: Michael Grace

With 2023’s forum being held in Yorkshire, we have the opportunity to take centre stage – to showcase our region’s strengths and potential and to make the case for investment here on our doorstep.

We need to start by talking-up our biggest asset, which is our people. The conversation around talent has long been centred on London but Yorkshire is home to a multitude of bright, engaged, ambitious people.

We’ve seen other sectors starting to recognise that with booming investment in technology in the region.

We now need infrastructure and real estate to catch up.

Within our own Yorkshire-based organisation at Turner & Townsend, the evidence is clear. Our people live and work as part of the local community. That emotional connection means that, not only are our employees passionate and motivated in their work on local projects, but that there’s also a greater drive to deliver social value, such as through voluntary mentoring or offering work experience.

This is ‘levelling up’ in action – creating jobs and therefore reducing financial inequalities across the country’s regions. By showcasing the energy and enthusiasm of Yorkshire business, we can generate a new wave of investment.

The other priority at UKREiiF is to show that Yorkshire is in a place to support the UK’s net zero and sustainability ambitions. The way that we build and maintain homes, offices, towns and city centres are central to decarbonising our economy. So too is how we travel between these places.

We are already seeing promising commitments and investment from local authorities across the country to retrofit existing buildings with low carbon energy systems and improve insulation and ventilation. In the North East, we’re working with the Tees Valley Combined authority to support local councils establishing heat decarbonisation plans for their residential and public buildings. We need that trend to continue and for more authorities to come to the table.

Getting to grips with how people use existing buildings will be absolutely critical to making the right investment decisions – particularly in the context of changing behaviours post Covid including the growth of hybrid working.

When it comes to infrastructure, anyone with experience of living and working in our region will know how difficult it is to commit to commuting by public transport, with services often too inconsistent to allow people to make more sustainable travel decisions.

Yorkshire remains disappointingly towards the lower end of the UK’s regions for capital spending on infrastructure and without the right investment we’re at risk of creating a green divide with the south of the country.

Many in the region remain disappointed by decisions to de-prioritise rail investment to Leeds through the Integrated Rail Plan: UKREiif is an opportunity to re-energise that debate.

By bringing industry together, the forum can shine a light on the big challenges in infrastructure and real estate from net zero to tackling regional inequalities.

For those of us living and working here, it’s an opportunity not just to make the business case for investment on paper, but to forge emotional connections – promoting investment in a green, inclusive and productive future.

Michael Grace is director and Leeds strategic lead at Turner & Townsend