In March, we were delighted to return to MIPIM and host five fringe events to bring together our members and key stakeholders from the GLA and London Boroughs to discuss the key issues affecting the property industry in London.
We kicked off MIPIM 2023 with our planning dinner, a small roundtable hosted by DP9 with Jules Pipe CBE, Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills and Lucinda Turner, Director of TfL Spatial Planning & GLA Planning, as our guests of honour.
Our Chief Executive and Chair for the evening, John Dickie, opened the conversation by acknowledging the changes the UK and London have seen since we were last at MIPIM in 2022. Not least the anticipated Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, currently making its way through the House of Lords and introduced by Michael Gove to be then succeeded by Greg Clark, Simon Clark and then again by Michael Gove.
Whilst it’s fair to say that these changes have certainly been a challenge for officials, it has also made development in London more challenging than ever. Partnership working, housing delivery and sustainability were key themes for the evening. Jules and Lucinda spoke about these and the other challenges they are seeing, including the raft of new legislation hitting the industry and the stretch of skills and resources on local authority planning teams, inhibiting their ability to meet, amongst others, ESG and principles of good growth.
Our next event was sponsored by Arcadis and reflected on the 2022 Sustainable Cities Index and the supercharging of net zero. London had scored fifth out of one hundred cities, but everyone agreed that there was no room for complacency and all cities needed to up their game. The key challenges raised during the discussion included energy transition, retrofitting existing buildings, and ensuring new builds are ​‘net zero ready’. It’s essential we accept that being progressive will undoubtedly impact development viability, so we must find creative ways to access investment capital. In the challenging economic climate, clear prioritisation of developer asks will be crucial.
At our flagship drinks and dinner receptions, we gathered London businesses and stakeholders from City Hall, London Councils and the City of London. We were delighted Jules Pipe CBE joined us again; he reiterated the importance of partnership working as an embedded principle in ensuring that the UK and London remained an attractive place to invest. He was clear that the industry must come together and plan for the future and commended our work on the Place Commission as a great example.
We were thrilled that our final event was the Women’s Networking Brunch, sponsored by Town Legal LLP, Turley and Landmark Chambers. Our first speaker, Meeta Kaur, Town Legal, outlined the importance of the event on the MIPIM programme. In the last few years, the number of women choosing not to attend MIPIM due to its not-so-inclusive reputation has grown. She reminded the audience that it’s vital that we do all we can to encourage women to attend and engage with the programme.
Next, Michele Steel from Turley reflected on our question for the event: ​‘how far has the sector come in terms of gender diversity’. Looking at La Croisette over the last few days, Michele said not far enough, and the sector still has a long way to go. She went on to say the make-up of those around the table at meetings, particularly at the leadership level, is still majority male, and gender biases then come into play. It’s important to bring gender mainstreaming into all aspects of the workplace, particularly leadership positions, which Turley is actively working to address.
Our last speaker, Heather Sargent, Planning Barrister, Landmark Chambers, agreed with and echoed much of what Meeta and Michelle covered and added that it was lovely to gather amongst so many women, to share ideas and that we needed to spread the word that there were inclusive events at MIPIM and we needed to encourage more women to return to the event.
A special thank you to all our sponsors at MIPIM: DP9, Arcadis, Turley, Town Legal LLP and Landmark Chambers.