Housing Cambridge Dublin London Anglian Water U+I

Today’s Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Economic Growth Conference is bringing together those at the forefront of regeneration, development and growth within the region. Public and private sector leaders with gather to network and share insights around ongoing and future development plans and how those within the built environment can integrate into those proposed schemes.

One of those who’ve joined us is major developer U+I and we speak exclusively with them:

 

U+I is a specialist regeneration and property developer with a £9.5 billion + portfolio of complex, mixed-use, community-focused regeneration projects across various regions. For those who may not know, tell us a bit more about U+I and the work they’re doing across the UK and Ireland?
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U+I was created in 2015, following the merger of two companies – Development Securities PLC and Cathedral Group. Our work across the UK focuses on Public Private Partnerships (PPP) which create places that put a community’s needs and aspirations centre stage. This leaves a legacy of long-lasting social and economic change for the communities in which we build, and sustainable value for our shareholders.

Our current projects include major PPP developments on Albert Embankment in London, where we’re working with the London Fire Commissioner to deliver a new home for the London Fire Brigade Museum, alongside new homes and commercial space, and Mayfield in Manchester, where we’re working with partners including Manchester City Council to transform a 24 acre derelict former railway station, delivering 10,000 jobs, a new 6.5 acre public park and over 1,350 homes in the city centre.

 

A lot of your projects have been focused on London, Manchester and Dublin city. Why is Cambridgeshire and Peterborough now becoming a focus for your company and what developments do you have in the pipeline?

We’re focused on sites bristling with potential that give us the opportunity to partner with other innovative organisations and deliver developments which are truly unique. Our focus on London is much broader than that of some developers. We don’t just focus on inner London and think there is enormous potential for growth and development in the wider London City Region – Cambridge and Peterborough included.

In July, we were pleased to be appointed as masterplanner by Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council to transform the current water recycling centre in north Cambridge into a major residential-led mixed-use urban quarter. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity that gives us a chance to deliver a vibrant place and provide the area with much-needed housing.

 

You’re working across several Public-private partnerships (PPP) – what does that entail exactly, and is it something you’re looking at continuing and increasing?

Partnering with public sector landowners on projects gives us access to some of the most exciting regeneration opportunities in the UK. The financial model is unique: the public sector seeds the partnership with land, then value is generated and captured as we work with those partners to develop proposals for the site. Ultimately, together with our partners, we create vibrant new places that provide the amenities, homes, jobs and public assets that communities need and which public landowners would otherwise be too stretched to deliver on their own. We are an experienced PPP developer and our aim is to be the public sector’s development partner of choice.

 

The planned expressway between Cambridge and Oxford is a massive infrastructure project that could deliver phenomenal growth to a region that’s already topping the year on year charts from economic growth in the UK. With that will come a lot of pressures to deliver more employment space and available homes. What can the government and regional authorities do within the region to help regeneration and development happen?

We firmly believe that partnership is key to unlocking sites and promoting development – the more public and private sector can work together, the more we will be able to deliver for communities. To make this happen, we need to see government empowering regional authorities to create the developments that are needed locally.

 

There is a lot of focus in the industry currently around available housing – we need to ensure we deliver more homes, more quickly but to the same high standard. Is it possible or are targets too high, and what potential innovative solutions are you looking at to speed up that delivery?

Whilst it’s important that we deliver the homes communities need, it’s also important that we do this in a way that will create lasting value. Delivering housing that an area needs isn’t just a numbers game – it’s also about creating places where people want to live. For U+I, this means creating homes as part of mixed-use developments with shops, offices and other amenities where people can work, rest and play.

Our Old Vinyl Factory site in Hayes, West London, is a prime example. When we acquired it, it was a failing business park and others had spent years struggling to making it a viable scheme. Everyone who wanted to acquire that site wanted to build residential only, but we thought about long-term employment opportunities, too. We’re now delivering a mixed-use scheme that will provide over 600 homes, but will also create 550,000 sq ft of office space, 70,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space, including a 3-screen cinema, landscaped streets and squares, cafes and restaurants, putting Hayes back on the maps as a desirable location to live and work.

 

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Economic Growth Conference is set to bring together public and private sector leaders from across the region to discuss and debate the future of the region to maximise the potential and unlock new opportunities. Why is the event a key date in the industry calendar?

We’re incredibly excited about the potential of the region and to be working with partners in Cambridge that share our vision for creating unique and vibrant places that modern communities need to thrive. We are looking forward to being part of this event, where we can draw on our experiences and discuss our future plans for how we plan to provide much-needed housing to this currently undersupplied region, and help create great people-centred places that reflect the area’s historical past, and bright economic future.
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