IED and thinkingplace Webinar: Our High Streets and Town Centres: what’s the story?

22 Jun 2021 - Online via Zoom 10.30am -12.00pm

Join us for a free webinar on the future of towns, how to start thinking about a business case and how to learn from what other locations have achieved.

At the outset of Covid 19 there was already significant economic attention on the UK’s towns and MHCLG had launched the Towns Fund and Future High Street Fund. Now, with these schemes starting to deliver the earliest projects and future funding potential arising from the Levelling Up Find and the Shared Prosperity Fund there is an urgency to plan future schemes and with Covid 19 having further undermined town centres, these plans have never been more important.

This is a highly practical session which will consider how to reconsider the future of towns, how to start thinking about a business case and how to learn from what other locations have achieved.

Co chaired by Nigel Wilcock, Executive Director of the IED and John Till, Director thinkingplace.

Speakers confirmed are:

Caroline Baker, Managing Partner, Cushman and Wakefield North West region

Caroline has over 20 years’ experience in regeneration advising clients, particularly public sector, on development issues ranging in scale from sub-regional to site specific. She has an impressive track record of leading multi-disciplinary teams to prepare high profile development strategies to support the regeneration of key areas across the North-West.  She has led strategies to support the revitalisation of a number of town centres including Altrincham, Barrow, Crewe, Macclesfield and Stalybridge. Most recently she has been supporting local authorities in bidding for Future High Street, Town Deal and Levelling Up Funding. 

Corinne Day, Programme Director for Newhaven Enterprise Zone

Corinne has worked for over 20 years in a development setting, both in the SE England and SE Asia. Most happy when working with partners and stakeholders to ensure engagement is participatory and inclusive, reflecting this successfully in ambition and vision for a place and its community in its widest sense.  Her experience is also in managing delivery of complex multi-disciplinary programmes spanning redevelopment of redundant sites and spaces, education and skills, and critically well-being. She currently works in Newhaven as the Programme Director for the Newhaven Enterprise Zone as a collaborator and champion, trying to bring to about new space for employment and a higher value proposition for the town. 

Steve Stewart, Director of Communications for Stagecoach, Vice Chair of Perth City Leadership Forum and Chair of the Perth Place Board

Steven is currently Director of Communications with Stagecoach Group plc, a leading multi-modal sustainable transport company in the UK. A former journalist, he has around 30 years’ experience in media and communications both in the public and private sectors, and he is a member of the strategic communications group for the UK bus and coach industry. Beyond transport, Steven is passionate about his home city of Perth and young people. He is Vice Chair of the private sector led Perth City Leadership Forum, a Director of Perthshire Chamber of Commerce, and leads the Perth Ambassador programme. In addition, Steven is a Board member and former Interim Chair of Horsecross Arts, the creative organisation and charity behind Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre, the city's two main cultural venues.

Register here now 

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