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With a packed programme shining a light on the best investment opportunities South Wales and Western England have to offer, the Western Gateway Pavillion at this year’s UK Real Estate infrastructure and investment Forum (UKREiiF) was the place to be to find out about the UK’s most exciting area for development. As the partnership looks ahead to the 2025 event, Sarah Williams-Gardener, Chair of the Western Gateway, looks back at this year’s success.

The future is ready and it’s on our doorstep if we are ready to work together to deliver it.  That was the message coming out of this year’s UKREiiF.

With areas from across the UK represented, it was a crowded field at UKREiiF with over 12,000 representatives from across Government, construction, energy, and investors all taking part to understand the potential for development across the nation.

At the Western Gateway Pavilion, we had a packed schedule with a wide range of partners, sponsors and local authorities on board to support our time at UKREiiF.

Our presence at UKREiiF followed a year of high-profile investment announcements worth over £100m at Severn Edge (former nuclear power stations at Oldbury & Berkeley) which are set to host the emergence of the UK’s Small Modular Reactor industry.

With the potential to be the fastest growing economic powerhouse outside of London over the next five years, Western Gateway is the best place to invest. I am proud to lead our partnership as we look to raise our area’s profile in order to harness this potential to deliver on the UK’s national mission for economic growth to support a fairer future for our communities.

Following this, it was great to be able to use the event to support so many other exciting, high-value projects including:

  • One of the UK’s biggest city-centre regeneration projects – sitting at the centre of our geography, our partners in West of England Combined Authority and Bristol City Council together used the Pavilion to demonstrate why the Bristol Temple Quarter project would be key for providing new jobs, homes and a revamped gateway to the city as an integral part of our Rail Vision 2050.
  • Using a 13.5km tidal lagoon to power high quality jobs and housing – showcasing the incredible rejuvenation of Wales’ second city was the Brig-y-Don project, presented by DST Innovations as a great example of the level of ambition our area has to deliver clean growth.  With an impressive vision for delivering sustainable batteries, the project demonstrates how harnessing tidal, wind and solar energy can help deliver new jobs, and homes within Swansea Bay.
  • £160m Investment Zone – building on world-leading strengths in manufacturing vital semiconductors, we were proud to showcase a wealth of opportunities available to fuel high tech business within the Cardiff Capital Region Investment Zone which is leveraging funding from two governments to support development across South East Wales.
  • A clean future for iconic former power station sites – after a showcase of the investment zone, we turned our attention to some of the most ambitious projects across our area.  The Cardiff Capital Region Energy project brings together private and public sector forces to deliver a clean future for the iconic Aberthaw Coal Power Station.  With representatives from across the UK taking part in the session we looked at how our area is looking to create a future out of our famous industrial past.
  • The UK’s largest Gigafactory – sited at the edge of our geography, we were proud to host a session on how the area can use its expertise and cultivate supply chains to support the development of the Agratas gigafactory in Somerset, placing the area at the forefront of driving the UK’s EV industry.

Alongside these inspiring projects, we were delighted to present speakers from across business and governments including representatives from the Department for Business and Trade, SSE Energy Solutions, Bristol Airport and National Composites Centre and many others.  We were again pleased to be joined by Ministers and Shadow minsters to the pavilion alongside national journalists to show them the potential we have in the Western Gateway geography.

By working together and with the support of our sponsors, our area was able to compete alongside the North, London and the Midlands with over 1000 unique visits to the tent.  My heartfelt thanks to our regional partners at Cardiff Capital Region and the West of England Combined Authority for being our Gold-level sponsors alongside Bristol and Swansea Councils as our Bronze-level partners.  I’d also like to thank our private sector sponsors at Hydrock (now Stantec) and Womble Bond Dickinson alongside our investable projects, Brig-Y-Don, Cardiff Capital Region Energy and This is Gravity for their support.

Following the announcement that the Western Gateway will be returning to UKREiiF in 2025, I look forward to being able to work again with our partners as we look to represent the best of what our area has to offer at this increasingly important national stage.

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