Western Gateway on the national stage at UKREiiF

As we prepared for UKREiiF, we were digesting what the Queen’s Speech meant for the economies of areas across the UK, and the challenges and opportunities this presented.  Whether that related to energy transition, support for business, improving productivity, or delivering equitable growth for all our communities. 

It was a pleasure to be joined by so many of our partners from across our area, from Cardiff Capital Region, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Swindon on what was a huge new opportunity for our area.

What is UKREiiF?

UKREiiF is the largest exhibition for capital and portfolio investment held in the UK. This year hosted over 4,000 attendees, 200+ local authorities, 80+ exhibitors with over 300+ speakers between 17-19 May.

The Western Gateway Partnership took part to represent the area on this national stage, providing a platform for partners to promote their investment opportunities and take part in conversations with nation’s decision makers.

What happened at UKREiiF?

The conference debated and showcased a wide selection of themes that covered a significant range of pressing challenges and opportunities. It was pleasing though to see metro mayors and civic leaders often leading or at the heart of these discussions, whether on investment, decarbonisation, sustainability, devolution, housing and economic growth.

I was struck by how the event brought diverse groups together to debate many of these topics and we were richer for that.

I was particularly interested in discussions that centred on how we tackle the grand challenges that our cities face in dealing with our net zero carbon promises.  We heard that across energy transitions, housing retrofit, decarbonising transport networks and dealing with the implications of climate change there is a mass of global capital – but creating the capacity to shape investible propositions is a key challenge. 

Across the Western Gateway, we were able to talk about the innovation, solutions, and collaboration that is taking place to bring forward proposals that will start to deliver investible propositions.

The event presented a powerful opportunity to promote our cause and celebrate our successes.  It was great to have so many champions for our area across panels and taking part in discussions throughout the event. 

What next?

We heard a lot about how we can deliver specific solutions to the decarbonisation of our cities.  However we still face challenges to ensure all of these ideas and themes are sufficiently joined up to demonstrate city level solutions.  We need to match the weight of global capital to investible city propositions and consider how stakeholders across the system can work together to create the capacity required to shape those solutions.

That is what is so great about conference like UKREiiF. We have many of the right heads in the room and as we follow up and collaborate going forwards, we can work our way through these challenges. 

Perhaps as we reconvene next year, we can see more of the challenges that we discussed and debated being turned round into solutions to be tested, challenged, and developed so that across our cities, towns and communities, we see more of a direct impact being felt in levelling up those who remain disadvantaged and in danger of being left behind.

Finally, what struck me is the clarity that I saw in many leaders, both civic and in business and industry, on the qualities that we all need to consider as key to building success. We need to be inclusive, put sustainability at the heart of our thinking but we also need to convene, collaborate, engage and build mutual trust and consensus.

I am really excited about the opportunities ahead and can’t wait to see progress we can all make when we come together in Leeds next year.