The Invest Norfolk & Suffolk team have been promoting the region’s key investment opportunities at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREIIF) event which took place in Leeds last week.
Spread over three days and with a vast agenda that saw 300 speakers across 14 different stages, the event brought together and connected investors, developers, the public sector, funders, and end-users with the aim of stimulating inward investment, the creation of new relationships and unlocking inclusive economic growth.
Key themes and sector challenges were laid out and discussed across the many locations, these included UK’s Net Zero Target, Social Value and Inclusive Growth, the Future of Real Estate, Building Better Communities, and Inclusive Inward Investment.
UKREiiF provided a platform for the public sector to highlight the scale of investable propositions from across the UK, with regions able to highlight future opportunities to developers, investors, and occupiers from across the globe.
Built Environment Networking, the event organisers, reported that 200 local authorities were in attendance, many of them among the 80 exhibitors that were present in the New Dock Hall.
The New Anglia LEP Inward Investment team hosted an Investment Facilitation session in the impressive Tower Gallery building. This was a targeted networking session where interested stakeholders, such as investors, funders, developers, and end-users who are interested in our region could sign up in advance to speak directly with the team about our region, its propositions, assets and to explore potential opportunities.
The team, consisting of Inward Investment Managers Stuart Catchpole and Guy Gibson, were joined by colleagues from South Norfolk & Broadland, East Suffolk and Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils to network with a range of stakeholders who ranged from developers looking for residential or healthcare home opportunities, to representatives from globally recognised companies within the automotive and grocery retail sectors.
The team were pleased to be able to promote the opportunities that we have in Norfolk and Suffolk, including Freeport East, our Energy Coast, key urban centres, and various development opportunities from across both counties. New contacts were established as part of this networking session and the team will be following them up in the coming weeks.
The broader event provided some useful opportunities to consider challenges that impact the sector, including planning, the road to net zero and the changing nature of the built environment as well as more focused discussions on topics such as ‘Developing Science and Innovation places’ and ‘Freeports one year on.’ The Freeport sessions enabled the team the opportunity to meet up with colleagues in DIT as we await the response to the Full Business case submission for Freeport East.
Overall, the event was well attended with a footfall of over 4,000 attendees, including 500 investors. Next year’s event is scheduled to be back in Leeds from 16th to 18th May 2023.
