Newsteer’s team hosted our inaugural breakfast event on the Challenges of Regeneration last Tuesday, chaired by Regeneration Director, Mark Byles. 

Founded in 2019, Newsteer is a multidisciplinary consultancy with a team of property, planning, and investment experts providing various perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in the real estate sector. The event drew on collective skillset, bringing together a diverse range of speakers and covered topics such as macroeconomic challenges, commercial market opportunities, digitisation of planning, shared ownership, conflicting regulations, and return to post-financial crash viability testing.

Keynote speaker, Jonathan Kay, Head of Regeneration at Brent Council, articulated the macroeconomic challenges and shared examples of how the Brent story has addressed hurdles like affordability and infrastructure. 

Simon Martin explored opportunities from a commercial market perspective, with the resounding message that things can only get better. Jessica Wilson highlighted the need for increased digitisation of planning, member training, early engagement with a delivery mindset, and political stability. Lottie Smallwood discussed the increasing pressures on shared ownership in a worsening financial climate, and Jonny Stevenson analysed the impact of second stairs on project viability. David Conboy explored the possibility of a return to post-financial crash approaches to viability testing and the importance of Development Performance Agreements to help Local Authorities resource complex schemes.

The event concluded with a meaningful discussion spearheaded by expert speakers, including Haworth Tompkins’ Hugo Braddick, Louise Ioannou from HB Reavis, Priya Ravindran, London Borough of Waltham Forest, and Mike McGuinness from Development Management company, InDev. 

We hope to make this event a regular feature in our calendar and look forward to seeing you at the next one.