Shelving a project may seem frustrating, but what if the time it lays untouched strengthens the glue that binds it all together?

Regeneration experts at the Regen 2025 conference in Liverpool emphasised the role of partnerships centred on trust and longevity in bringing forward complex projects across the UK.

Mark Robinson, senior development director at Kier Property, said: “Whether you’re talking private-private or public-private, it’s about having an alignment of interests, and there is a need for the partners to be clear about that from the start. Fundamentally, the trustworthy partnerships are built on being open at the outset.”

Test, learn and grow

At the same time, there is “something beautiful” about a relationship that is a little bit riskier and can push the boundaries, according to Eve Avdoulos, senior associate and urban research lead at architectural firm We Made That.

“The most successful relationships are when you’re not just banging your head against a wall but test, learn and grow all the time,” she said. “The more we can bring that into the work we do in the built environment, the better places we’ll be able to create together and also the stronger relationships we’ll be able to build.

“What we love to see is when a local authority is OK when we need to revisit regeneration plans because something has shifted, and we’re going to do it together.”

Kier Property’s Robinson added: “Some of our schemes that were on the drawing board pre-pandemic, we’ve revisited them, got engagement to know what the position is to create something that responds to a particular part of the market.”

Among the projects that were caught in Covid was Liverpool’s £55m Pall Mall development. The scheme, comprising 400,000 sq ft of offices and a hotel, sits at the heart of the city’s commercial business district, on a council-owned site.

Pre-pandemic, the partners were looking to kick off the scheme with the delivery of the hotel, but earlier this year, Liverpool City Council poured in £15m to deliver 111,500 sq ft of workspace and a new 1.2-acre urban park, which will now become the first phase of the project.

The move comes as demand for offices has begun to recover. The scheme is expected to open by summer 2028, marking the first grade-A office development in the city’s business district for 16 years.

Mona Hassan, quantity surveyor at Gleeds, said: “It comes back to prioritisation, and I think we just need to sometimes not look at it as a negative but a positive. There are instances where it is a better idea to shelve a local scheme and come back to it than try and proceed with the phased elements.”

At the other end of the North West, the stress and strain around the shift in working patterns brought by Covid forced partners to reposition the £1bn MIX Manchester masterplan away from offices towards science, innovation and advanced manufacturing space.

Gareth Jackson, group property director at Manchester Airports Group, said: “We looked at how we could help Manchester City Council and the national agendas associated with the industrial strategies. How do we make that fit within the ecosystem of Manchester?

“We didn’t want to step on the toes of all that hard work across the Oxford Road Corridor, and we landed on a position where we were going to offer a manufacturing opportunity.”

When built out, the campus is expected to become the largest in the UK, spanning 2m sq ft of commercial space alongside hotels, leisure facilities and public realm.

Jackson added: “That allows businesses to stay in the region and have a base that services their global requirements because a lot of these businesses do export their products using belly cargo. So we’re keeping those high-quality jobs and creating new development and growth opportunities in the region.”

The strategy has borne fruit as Manchester City Council bought into the scheme last month, taking a 30% share in the project. The deal follows the exit of Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which previously held a 50% interest, with the reminder of the holding acquired by Greater Manchester Pension Fund. The latter has increased its share to 30%.

Shining light

Although regeneration often starts from public-private partnerships, it then spills into local communities.

Kier Property’s Robinson said: “You can map out a stakeholder community as a starting point, but equally, you can’t cast the net so wide that you can’t then make a decision.”

The UK government has rolled out its Pride in Place strategy, aiming to encourage collaboration with communities across disadvantaged areas to create safer and healthier neighbourhoods. The strategy is expected to boost the delivery of social infrastructure, such as libraries and community centres, reflecting the priorities of those who live nearby.

Sophie Bevan, director of regeneration at Liverpool City Council, said: “It’s all about who the people in that place are, who you need to talk to, what their needs are and how you build the solutions for that place.

“Regeneration means a number of different things in different places: it could be about growth, it might mean safer places to walk through in some of our outer areas, it could be about homes people can afford to heat. Ultimately, we need to look at the place from a micro and a macro level and then apply engagement with those communities.”

Bevan added that identifying an anchor development within the wider masterplan is key to successful regeneration as it becomes the catalyst for more opportunities to be drafted around that.

We Made That’s Avdoulos said: “People make projects. If you don’t have people working together around a project who understand their roles and work collaboratively with the right culture, then you’re going to face problems.

“There is something about how we can work together and strengthen those relationships because it does ultimately lead to better collaborative working and less animosity in the planning world.”

All in all, regeneration experts agreed there are different ingredients involved in building trust, relationships and real estate nationwide, with the North West named as a “shining light” in driving meaningful changes across the neighbourhoods, as described by MAG’s Jackson. He said: “I think the region is becoming powerful in terms of the opportunities that seem to be coming forward nowadays.”

Gleed’s Hassan added: “We’ve got all the ingredients for the recipe, so let’s just make it happen.”