Event Summary
MIPIM GALLERY | Investable North
From marinas to innovation districts, Northern leaders pitched £500m investment visions for their regions at this Dragons Den-style event.
Expert speakers:
- Paul Dennett, City Mayor of Salford
- Cllr Anne Handley, leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council
- Cllr Lynn Williams, leader of Blackpool Council
- Nicola Elsworth, director of strategic growth, Tameside Council
- Cllr Tom Ross, leader of Trafford Council
- Linda Goodacre, director of estates and facilities management, University of Sheffield
- Chaired by Dan Whelan, deputy editor of Place North West
Chaired by Dan Whelan, the Investable North session challenged civic leaders and development partners to convince a hypothetical investor with £500m to deploy that their project offered the most compelling opportunity.
From advanced manufacturing hubs to seaside regeneration, the panel demonstrated the scale and diversity of opportunities emerging across the region.
Salford pitches innovation and town centre renewal
Opening the session, Paul Dennett presented two investment propositions for the city.
The first centres on a major innovation district being developed in partnership with the University of Salford.
“This is a research-intensive proposition built around industrial collaboration,” Dennett said. “The university applies research and innovation in the real world – this isn’t theoretical. It’s grounded in doing things.”
The project aims to create a globally competitive innovation district combining research space, collaborative hubs, and residential development. The initiative is expected to generate around £350m of gross value added each year and create approximately 7,000 high-value jobs.
“We want to accelerate R&D and innovation floor space, commercial innovation hubs, and collaborative environments,” Dennett said.
Alongside employment space, the scheme includes plans for 3,000 low-carbon homes on brownfield land, supporting the city’s wider strategy of inclusive growth.
Dennett also highlighted regeneration plans for Eccles town centre, where the council has already acquired retail assets to help unlock redevelopment.
“Where the public sector has skin in the game, development happens faster,” he said. “This is about shaping new commercial, leisure and community assets and unlocking long-term value through place-making.”
Blackpool targets tourism and digital infrastructure
Lynn Williams made the case for continued investment in one of the UK’s most famous seaside destinations.
Over the past decade and a half, the council has been working to reshape perceptions of the town while diversifying its economy.
“Our visitor economy supports 23,000 jobs and contributes around £2bn to the regional economy… We’re more than halfway through a £2bn growth and prosperity programme transforming our economy,” Williams said.
Central to this is the Talbot Gateway scheme around Blackpool North railway station, a £350m business district delivering offices, education facilities, and new public transport infrastructure.
But Williams focused on two emerging opportunities for investors: The first is the redevelopment of the Blackpool Central site, located next to the iconic Blackpool Tower.
“Sites like this almost never come to market,” she said. “A development plot of this scale directly under a national landmark, next to the promenade and with motorway access is incredibly rare.”
The project aims to create a new leisure quarter supporting a year-round tourism economy.
The second opportunity, dubbed Silicon Sands, builds on the town’s unexpected digital advantage. “What many people don’t realise is that major subsea internet cables connecting the UK with North America and Europe land in Blackpool,” Williams said.
Those connections mean data travelling between major financial and technology hubs passes through the town within milliseconds, creating a potential location for data centres and digital infrastructure. “In the digital economy, connectivity is everything,” she said.
Trafford focuses on housing and regeneration
Tom Ross outlined plans for residential development at Chester House, located on the former GMSP site in the north of the borough.
The scheme is already supported by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and benefits from public-sector land ownership, simplifying the delivery process.
“The design work is already done and the land is in public ownership,” Ross said. “That gives investors certainty.” The development could incorporate a district heating network and sits within the Western Gateway growth zone, benefiting from strong transport connectivity.
Ross also highlighted its proximity to the major regeneration plans around Old Trafford: “Anyone investing in this scheme will benefit from the wider Old Trafford regeneration story we are building in Trafford,” he said.
Transport-led growth in Tameside
For Nicola Elsworth, the key to unlocking development lies in transport connectivity, given that Tameside sits just 7.5 miles east of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 240,000.
“Our unique selling point is that we are both highly urban and close to the countryside at the foothills of the Peak District,” Elsworth said.
Major regeneration plans focus on the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge, where a new mayoral development corporation has been created to deliver transport-led growth. The initiative will centre on a new integrated transport hub linked to the region’s expanding Bee Network public transport system.
The project is expected to support more than 3,000 homes, 3,000 jobs and 1.5m sq ft of employment space.
“Transport will act as the catalyst for regeneration and growth,” Elsworth said. “Improving connectivity allows us to unlock higher density development and create a new gateway into the borough.”
Sheffield promotes advanced manufacturing hub
The University of Sheffield is also seeking partners for a major innovation development.
Linda Goodacre outlined plans for Runway Park, a 100-acre innovation campus located on the former Sheffield City Airport.
The site sits alongside the university’s globally recognised Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and will focus on sectors including aerospace, defence, automotive, and clean technology.
“This is a unique innovation development that will drive growth across South Yorkshire. “We’re looking for partners who want to help turn those ideas into reality” Goodacre said.
The project is intended to help retain talent produced by the city’s universities and strengthen links between research and industry.
East Yorkshire backs coastal regeneration
Taking a different approach, Anne Handley championed coastal regeneration projects centred on maritime investment.
Her first proposal focused on building a yacht marina in Bridlington.
“I’ve travelled up and down the east coast and there isn’t a marina anywhere. It’s different on the south coast,” Handley said. “Bridlington has the deep water to make it happen.” The marina could transform the local economy, she argued, supporting tourism, hospitality and new jobs.
Handley also highlighted development potential at Hull’s Western Docklands, a 70-acre waterfront regeneration site. “There is nowhere else in the UK where deep-sea port access, a growing city centre and a large regeneration site sit this close together,” she said.
The site could support mixed-use development including hotels, residential buildings, leisure facilities and port-related businesses, reconnecting the city with the Humber waterfront.
A shared Northern ambition
While each speaker pitched their own local project, the session concluded with a broader discussion about collaboration across the region.
Dennett emphasised that partnership has long been central to the success of Greater Manchester.
“When we talk about the North, it really is a thing,” he said. “If we collaborate strategically, we can achieve amazing things.”
Elsworth agreed that the region must do more to present a unified message internationally: “There’s incredible work happening across the North,” she said. “But we need to amplify that and show the global market what we can deliver together.”
