Historic England, who’ll be attending our Manchester Development Plans Conference on the 23rd January, are looking to engage with developers, investors and more as they look to repurpose redundant mill sites.

Heritage buildings such as mills symbolise the North of England’s industrial heritage, and Historic England have recently published a report alongside Cushman & Wakefield that shows if interventions were made to redevelop them they could be brought back into public use. At our conference they’ll be discussing their proposals and looking to engage with businesses who are keen to help provide a solution to create housing and jobs in the region – as local authorities are becoming under pressure to deliver more. Redevelopments of such historic buildings would provide the development sites the regions need, and with Manchester City Council in attendance at the Manchester Development Plans Conference we’ll be able to hear their thoughts too on how they’ll be helping.

Historic England recently published two reports, prepared by Cushman & Wakefield, which highlighted how growth could be delivered through mills. The scale of opportunity is eye-opening, illustrating the potential for 133,000 new jobs or 25,000 new homes in Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Whilst a similar report, commissioned by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, estimated a total of 27,000 homes and 150,000 jobs could be created through the 1,350 redundant and under-used mill buildings in Yorkshire.

You can learn more about their case studies and proposals for mills sites in Yorkshire and the North West here – and they’ll be talking and networking through these ahead of the event.