BOOK NOW | Lancashire Development Update

There are just two weeks to go until the first development-focussed Place North West event of 2025, which will see senior figures from property, academia, and local government grapple with the big questions facing a newly devolved Lancashire.

The full line-up of speakers is now confirmed for what is sure to be an information-packed morning at Place North West‘s Lancashire Development Update.

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We’ll look at the opportunity Lancashire has to become a recognised centre of excellence in cyber and the digital economy, with projects such as Silicon Sands and the National Cyber Force campus in Samlesbury.

As the University of Central Lancashire opens its Newtown Mill campus in Burnley, we’ll also look at the effectiveness of education as a regeneration tool. What sort of impact might Blackpool’s Multiversity and Blackburn’s skills campus have on their areas? Three years on, how has the £60m student centre in Preston changed that part of the city?

We’ll also examine the prospects for Lancashire in a changing political landscape. What’s the story on devolution, and how will it look here? What do our experts expect to change in regeneration funding, transport, and planning policy as they look to help put the county in the best shape for the years ahead?

This event, sponsored by Blackpool Council, Preston Council, and FIREM takes place at Preston Guild Hall on Thursday 6 February 2025.

What you will take away

• Understanding of how digital and education can drive regeneration and economic development in Lancashire
• Insight into how local leaders are working with a changing political landscape and national leadership
• Where the hotspots are that local authorities are prioritising
• Knowledge of key project pipeline: who is doing what and where
• Valuable contacts for your business

Speakers confirmed

John Chesworth is the chair of The Preston Partnership. Chesworth is a property lawyer and senior partner of Lancashire-headquartered Harrison Drury Solicitors. He chairs the private sector-led Preston Partnership and the Preston Towns Fund Board, and sits on the Lancashire Business Board which will be part of the incoming Combined Authority.

Nick Gerrard is the growth and prosperity programme director at Blackpool Council. He manages the growing places division within the local authority, holding responsibility for a range of projects vital to Blackpool’s future, including Talbot Gateway, Multiversity and Silicon Sands, a 50-acre campus project intended to host a raft of data centres at the Blackpool Airport Enterprise Zone.

Nick Hague is a director at Maple Grove Developments. Hague is an experienced project management professional, with more than 25 years’ experience in multi-phased, mixed-use developments in public-private partnerships. Prior to joining Maple Grove in 2022, he worked for Muse for more than a decade, working on the delivery of masterplanned projects such as Salford New Bailey and Stockport Exchange.

Kate Ingram is director of economy and development at Burnley Council. She is responsible for planning, housing, regeneration, and economic development. She has been leading Burnley’s transformation for over a decade, delivering complex placemaking projects and building strong collaborations with the private sector.

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Simon Lawrence is the director of growth and regeneration at Lancashire County Council. Lawrence leads the authority’s major developments portfolio, which currently includes projects such as the Farington cricket facility, the Eden Project at Morecambe, and the planned arrival of National Cyber Force at Samlesbury. He also leads the council’s business support service, which includes the Boost and Rosebud offers. Since joining the county council nearly two years ago, he has led on devolution activity, working closely with colleagues in Whitehall, Blackpool, and Blackburn with Darwen on Lancashire’s devolved future.

Adrian Phillips is the chief executive of Preston City Council. A veteran of the local authority, he was appointed to the top job in 2019, and has been actively involved in major capital projects including heritage-led park schemes such as Avenham & Miller and Winckley Square, and as project sponsor for the Preston Markets Quarter redevelopment.

Deborah Smith is the co-founder of S&L Planning Consultants. She previously spent nine years in a senior role with Turley. Smith has been involved with a wide range of significant projects.

James Thomson is an associate director at Hawkins\Brown. He led the UCLan Student Centre project in Preston for the architecture firm’s Manchester studio, a project that redefined the university’s relationship with the city centre. Furthering a reputation for designing and delivering transformative education projects across the region, he is now working on Blackpool’s Multiversity project, placing education at the forefront of town centre regeneration.

Dan Price is a professor of cyber security at Lancaster University and co-director of Security Lancaster. Price is at the forefront of the university’s £19m programme to cement its position as a leading UK centre of cyber security research. Drawing on excellence from across academia, Security Lancaster is one of the largest interdisciplinary security research institutes in the UK with 130 staff from 15 academic departments.

Alun Francis is the chief executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College. With bold plans for a Multiversity campus in Blackpool town centre aim to tackle multiple issues facing the town. Francis will update the audience on where the project is up to and what it means for Blackpool’s residents and built environment.

Jamie Allison is the head of real estate at Napthens. With clients across the county in commercial property, leisure, and construction. Allison is well-placed to comment on the mood of the Lancashire market.

Emily Armstrong is senior development manager at FIREM. Arguably Lancashire’s most active industrial developer, FIREM has a better insight than most into the challenges and opportunities facing this sector. Armstrong will provide an update on the developer’s transformation of Botany Bay into one of the county’s premier employment schemes and analyse how the market is evolving amid changing market trends.

Purchase your ticket using the form below or by contacting events@placenorth.co.uk.