Sheffield City Region Economic Growth & Development Conference

Sheffield City Region Combined Authority – Dan Jarvis, Mayor

Dan was elected as Mayor of the Sheffield City Region in May 2018 and has been at the forefront of driving regeneration across the area’s towns and cities since. In Parliament, Dan has sat on the Business Innovation and Skills select committee and has served as the Shadow Minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and as Shadow Minister for Justice and then Foreign Affairs. He has run a number of campaigns including increasing the National Minimum Wage, reducing Child Poverty and changing the law on organ donation.

Great Places Housing – Helen Spencer, Executive Director of Growth

Great Places Housing Group are one of the North’s leading social housing providers with over 24,000 homes across the North West and Yorkshire. They have ambitious plans and hope to deliver 11,000 new homes by 2030, across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Yorkshire. These will be delivered by a variety of means, with their long term relationship with Homes England and through the Bloc and Innovation Chain North West partnerships as well as their private sector development arm, Cube Great Places.

Scarborough Group International – Mark Jackson, Director

Scarborough Group International are planning to deliver a £150m Olympic Legacy Masterplan in the Don Valley which will see the development of 15 commercial buildings, a new stadium, an arena and world class green space. With a 15 year pipeline of work, once completed the development will be home to 5900 new jobs and become home to some of the most important businesses in the Sheffield City region.

Godwin Group – Lindsay McCombe, Senior Development Director

As Godwin prepare to deliver their 23 storey, 336 unit Farm Road build to rent scheme, Lindsay joins our event to talk about their future ambition to grow a presence in South Yorkshire and have the same positive transformational effect that they have had while working in other cities such as Cambridge, Birmingham and Derby.

Sheffield Chamber of Commerce – Louisa Harrison-Walker, Executive Director

Louisa is the founder of an award winning Sheffield based organisation, is the Chair of The Sheffield City Growth Board – the private sector board working alongside Sheffield City Council to support and promote economic development in the City – and is the Regional Chair for Leadership Development Organisation Common Purpose, a global leadership organization devoted to developing leaders who can cross boundaries, both at work and in society. Louisa will join the session to discuss the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce’s plans to continue the post-pandemic fightback for local businesses and encourage inclusive economic growth to create a prosperous Sheffield and South Yorkshire region.

Doncaster Council – Karen Lythe, Assistant Director Strategic Housing

Doncaster Council recently approved ambitious plans for a new housebuilding programme which will be split into three delivery phases over the next five years through to 2025 with the aim building over 500 new council homes. The plans will see further affordable homes for families, older people and residents with special needs worked up and delivered through partnerships with housing associations and the private sector. Engagement with private developers will also expand the choice of quality new homes right across the borough. Karen will join the session to give more intel on the new housing plans and discuss how it will help satisfy the housing needs in Doncaster and meet the targets set out in the new Local Plan.

Fortwell Capital – Nick White, Associate Director

Fortwell Capital has completed a new £31.5m development loan to Blenheim Land & Properties, for a multi-phase residential scheme on the former Hallam Towers Hotel site in Sheffield. The loan will enable the construction of both phases of the 117 unit scheme, which is in a strategic gateway location. The development represents Fortwell Capital’s first ever deal in Sheffield with the lender continuing to target high-quality housing developments in strong regional markets. Nick will join the session to discuss this major project and delve into Fortwell’s future plans to invest in the Sheffield City Region.

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust – Zoe Shearman, Investment and Development Manager

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust are responsible for regenerating old mining communities by driving investment and development within them. They work right across the UK but for this event Zoe will be speaking directly about their forthcoming investment portfolio of c.£42m across industrial, offices, residential, retail and leisure sectors in Yorkshire and the Sheffield City Region, which is being undertaken by their burgeoning development arm CRT Property Investments.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council – Paul Woodcock, Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment

Paul will join the conference to give an update on the regeneration of Rotherham High Street with the latest segment of the plans including town centre residential development. The plans form part of the Town Centre Masterplan which includes £30m plus funding for three major housing developments at Wellgate, Westgate and Sheffield Road, as well as improvements to open spaces across College Street, Bridgegate, Howard Street and Effingham Street. Paul will share more intel on these schemes as well as discussing the first six schemes to receive funding from the Towns and Villages improvement package.

Kennedys – Helen Johnson, Partner

Helen is head of real estate & construction at Kennedys Law LLP. Helen specialises in construction projects and disputes, and acts for developers, contractors and professional consultants. Helen has lived in Sheffield for 12 years and is an executive board member of Sheffield Property Association.

Kennedys is a global law firm comprised of over 2,000 people, in 58 offices in 22 countries across the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, UAE and the Americas.

Our vision is to become the go-to firm for straightforward, expert legal advice, wherever in the world our clients require it. Drawing on the extensive resources and expertise of our global network, we are committed to providing a seamless service to our clients, wherever they may be.

Harron Homes – Tony Lee, Managing Director, Yorkshire

Harron Homes have big plans for South Yorkshire in their quest to build up to 500 homes per year. A total of 285 new homes, with a mix of two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom properties are to be built on a 27.2-acre site in Throapham, near Rotherham. Of these, 70 would be affordable housing with a central green space area would also being created. In this session we will hear from Tony Lee, Managing Director for Yorkshire about these plans and his ambition for Harron to deliver up to 500 homes per year.

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park – Richard Caborn, Chair

Major new health care, regeneration and sporting projects totalling more than £200m have been unveiled for Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park with the flagship developments set to include a National Centre for Child Health Technology and a ground-breaking diagnostic imaging research hub. Richard will give more intel on the forward investment Master Plan which could generate over 5,600 jobs will also ensure the Park will play a major role in the post-pandemic and post-Brexit economy of South Yorkshire.

Built Environment Networking – Amanda Griffiths, Director

Amanda is one of the Co-Founder’s of Built Environment Networking – formed almost 10 years ago.

She’ll be hosting throughout the day, running the days proceedings and managing the interaction between our delegates and the speakers.

Sheffield City Region Combined Authority – Dave Smith, Chief Executive Officer

Dave heads up the team responsible for delivering its £350m programme to drive prosperity across the region and its 68,000 businesses.

He works with an immensely strong private-public partnership which has helped create investment-ready opportunities for many foreign owned companies with a base in the region.

On this event he’ll share details on how they’re working to attract most investment and unlock more development across the city region.

VU.CITY – Jon Roebuck, Regional Business Development Manager

Jon is the Regional  Business Development Manager at VU.CITY covering our cities in the North of England.

VU.CITY is a game-changing solution for urban development teams. Speeding up all aspects of the planning process from design concept stage right through to planning application submissions.

Their accurate 3D city models allow for collaborative and virtual feasibility and impact studies for proposed developments across 20+ cities in the UK and internationally.

Jon has previous experience in the built environment in Facilities Management, PropTech, and Placemaking.