The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum
Days hours mins secs
When and where?
9:50am - 12:00pm
Tickets
Driving growth across the UK and accelerating economic development.
This year’s event will bring together 16,000+ delegates, 1,250 speakers, 150 exhibitors, and thousands more across fringe events, including government, investors, developers, and innovators from almost every UK region.
Connected Places Catapult will host our own Pavilion: a space for UK cities, regions, clusters and freeports to connect, collaborate, and tackle regional challenges. The programme will spotlight local growth and investment, construction, transport, social value, heritage, and emerging technologies.
Our UKREiiF Strategic Partner
Our UKREiiF Programme Partners
Join us to share ideas, collaborate and grow your network!
Last year we attracted over 1,200 visitors. View our 2026 pavilion's programme:
Tuesday 19 May | 11:45 - 12:45
Closed Networking Lunch: Sticky innovation, thriving places: from university to scale up with Midlands Innovation and UK universities.
Tuesday 19 May | 14:00 - 15:00
Closed Roundtable: Unlocking Growth in Industrial Strategy Zones
Thank you to JLL for hosting the session in the JLL Pavilion.
Tuesday 19 May | 17:00–18:00
Join us for Networking Drinks hosted by Buttress Architects.
Connect with the site owners, developers, investors, and architects unlocking investment through heritage‑led regeneration.
Wednesday 20 May | 17:00–18:00
Join Metro Dynamics for informal drinks and conversation to explore what it will take to turn ambition into action, and discuss opportunities to mobilise investment and growth across the UK.
We’d be delighted to see you there!
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Join us in our pavilion where we unite partners from across the UK to focus on delivering infrastructure and place‑based innovation. Visit us to connect with public and private sector leaders, unlock projects, and help turn ambition into real‑world delivery and regional growth.
- Alan Welby, Built Environment & Local Growth Managing Director, Connected Places Catapult
What is the Role of Local Government in Driving Innovation and Business Growth?
Some regions already have strong innovation economies, while others are using the Local Innovation Partnership Fund to develop clusters and new triple‑helix collaborations. Building on the LGA’s ‘Force for Growth’ report, this panel will explore how local leaders can drive innovation‑led growth and the roles councillors and officers should play.
- Chair: Eve Roodhouse, Director of Policy, Local Government
- Eleanor Springer, Associate Director, Metro Dynamics
- Association
- Prashant Pillai, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research & Knowledge Exchange, University of Wolverhampton GIC
- Cllr Richard Wright, Chair of Local Councils Network and Lead Member for the LGA’s Inclusive Growth Committee
Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre Panel
Innovation procurement is practical, compliant and already happening. This panel explores innovation procurement as a solution to barriers in public and private sector innovation, enabling place‑based growth and net zero. Through the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), Leeds City Council, and NEPO examples the panel will examine enabling SMEs and the market to drive and scale innovation in cities.
- Jonathan Pryor, Councillor, Leeds City Council
- Rikesh Shah, Head of Procurement Technical, Connected Places Catapult
- Ruth Long, Procurement Manager, North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO)
Sticky Innovation, Thriving Places: From University to Scale up
Join the UK university sector and Connected Places Catapult for a working lunch to explore how places can optimise the conditions for university spin outs to scale. The lunch follows a morning of panels in the Connected Places Catapult pavilion, with a focus on regions reaching their full potential as the sites of business growth.
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- Erika Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, Connected Places Catapult
- Dr Helen Turner, Director, Midlands Innovation
Raising Private Capital for Businesses in Regions
What is holding back investment in businesses in regions? How do places turn the challenge of place-based investment into an opportunity? What are the respective benefits of different models for collaboration, investor relations, portfolio development and investment zones.
- Chair: Andrew Carter, Chief Executive, The Centre for Cities
- Lord Marvin Rees OBE
- Andy Devaney, Executive Director of Investment and Delivery, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
- Paige Portal, Senior Account Director, Henham Strategy
Financing Net Zero infrastructure - From Strategy to Delivery
This session explores how public, private and blended finance can accelerate innovation and unlock investment in Net Zero infrastructure and place-based delivery. It will examine what works, the barriers that remain, and how partners can structure investable portfolios that move projects from pipeline to implementation.
- Chair: Stephen Jones, Director, Core Cities
- Alana McPhee, Head of Sustainable Structuring, Barclays
- Charlie Ross, Investment Manager - Real Assets, Standard Life
- Patrick Allcorn, Head of Local Net Zero Demonstration and Delivery, DESNZ
Roundtable: Unlocking Growth in Industrial Strategy Zones (Freeports & Investment Zones)
This closed roundtable brings ISZ Senior Responsible Officers and government together for the first time to share challenges, identify opportunities, and discuss practical ways to accelerate growth across Freeports and Investment Zones. As national catalysts for innovation, ISZs will outline key barriers and potential solutions.
- Hosted at: JLL Pavilion, Pavilion Square
- Chair: Alan Welby, Manging Director of Local Growth and Built Environment, Connected Places Catapult
Delivering Joined-Up Impact Across the Asset Lifecycle
This panel brings together practitioners from across the sector to share practical approaches to collaborative impact delivery. Expect real‑world examples and actionable takeaways, including how innovation can be delivered through procurement. The session opens with a keynote from Nicola Mathers (Future of London) on creating lasting legacy, followed by a panel discussion with an architect, planner, and developer‑manager.
- Chair: Cléo Folkes, Lead Consultant - Real Assets, Thrive
- Cithra Marsh, Director, Buttress Architects
- Chris Law, Central & Local Government Lead, Aecom
- Jamie Quinn, Sustainability Director, Related Argent
- Nicola Mathers, Chief Executive Officer, Future of London
Historic England: Second Heritage Investment Prospectus Launch
Historic England launches its second Heritage Investment Prospectus at UKREiiF, alongside launch partner Buttress Architects. Join a panel discussion exploring 20 historic development sites with the potential to deliver over 1,600 new homes, unlocking investment through heritage‑led regeneration, followed by networking drinks.
- Emma Squire CBE, Co-CEO, Historic England
- Stephen Anderson, Director, Buttress Architects
Networking Drinks hosted by Buttress Architects
Historic England launches its second Heritage Investment Prospectus at UKREiiF, alongside launch partner Buttress Architects. Join to celebrate and network with site owners, developers, investors and architects, and learn about 20 historic sites unlocking investment through heritage‑led regeneration.
Register your interest to attend here
Building for outcomes: a new blueprint for sustainable delivery and smarter growth networking breakfast
Ditch the presentations and panel talks for a participative breakfast discussion. How can we deliver more homes while simultaneously tackling social and environmental crises? Is "purpose" an added luxury or the key to unlocking growth? Bring your perspective, test ideas, and challenge assumptions about what purpose-driven development can achieve.
Start the day with an interactive breakfast hosted by the Quality of Life Foundation, The Crown Estate, Landsec and Muse.
Industrialised Construction - The Viability Breakthrough?
Modern Methods of Construction have promised transformation before and fallen short. This session explores the evolution to Industrialised Construction and what’s changed: stronger pipelines, better digital standards, maturing manufacturing capability, and coordinated public‑sector demand. We’ll examine how these shifts can finally close the viability gap and unlock the market for industrialised construction, making large‑scale housing and new towns deliverable, investable and genuinely lower‑risk.
- Chair: Krithika Ramesh, Head of Built Environment & Urbanism Engagement, Connected Places Catapult
- Ben Jowett, Head of Digital Transformation, Wates Group
- Edward Jezeph, Senior Manager, Homes England
- Jeff Endean, Director, Cast
- Kate Rudin, Housing and Innovation Director, Akerloff,
Humber Freeport Investment Prospectus Launch: Unlocking Investment-Ready Opportunities
This session marks the launch of the Humber Freeport Investment Prospectus, showcasing investment-ready opportunities across Hull, Goole and Immingham. Featuring a short film, strategic overview and panel discussion, it highlights how Humber Freeport is unlocking sites, accelerating development and connecting investors to opportunity across a globally significant industrial cluster.
- Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire
- Luke Campbell, Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire
- Finbarr Dowling, Chair of Humber Freeport
Humber Freeport Networking Lunch
Smart Places, Smarter Councils: Driving Digital Transformation Across Local Government
With a focus on PropTech – and demonstrating the divergence of views and adoption of this – this session will discuss digital innovation in local government. This includes a review of current capacity and capability within the sector with contributions from central government in how it is supporting adoption of technology in the sector to accelerate transformation and deliver services that are more accessible, efficient, and tailored to local need.
- Chair: Owen Pritchard Director of Data Insight and Innovation Local Government Association
- Joanna Birch, Chief Innovation Officer, Woodbourne Group
- Maria Doyle, Managing Partner at Deloitte and Chair of the Belfast City Region Place Partnership
Accelerating Housing Through Collaborative Innovation
Whether delivering a new town, regenerating a complex urban area, or building out a large housing site, accelerating housing requires a clear view of feasibility, constraints and the right delivery model, whether a development corporation, joint venture or developer‑led approach. This session explores how the i3P model - a collaborative innovation partnership used by major UK infrastructure clients to solve shared delivery challenges - can be adapted to unlock faster housing delivery and stronger business growth. By bringing public bodies, developers, infrastructure providers and supply‑chain innovators together, i3P enables partners to fix common bottlenecks once and scale solutions across multiple sites.
- John Reid, Director, Homes England
- Kevin McGinley, Director Development Property, Platform 4 (Network Rail)
- Martyn Saunders, Director, Metro Dynamics
Minding the Gap: Investing in Innovation Districts
Focusing on the distinct market challenges facing innovation districts, this panel explores why viability gaps emerge and what makes these places particularly complex in real‑estate terms. Through case studies, we will hear how different places are addressing this challenge and the tools and tactics proving effective.
- Chair: Emma Frost, Chair, Innovation Districts Group
- Andrew Lewis, Chief Executive, Liverpool City Council
- Helen Goulden, Innovation & Partnerships Lead, Lloyds Banking Group
Networking Drinks hosted by Metro Dynamics
Join us for Networking Drinks hosted by Metro Dynamics.
Meet leaders from across the public and private sectors who are driving innovation, collaboration, and investment to build better, more sustainable communities.
Register your interest to attend here.
Key Cities Leader's Networking Event: 'Cities Investment and Growth' Coffee
Hosted by Connected Places Catapult
This invite-only networking coffee will bring together city leaders from across the UK to discuss how local authorities, the government and the private sector can work together to drive economic growth.
Meet us in Pavilion Square to collaborate, discuss and extend your network.
To find out how to arrange a business meeting with us, join the discussion in the pavilion or collaborate on projects contact us at events@cp.catapult.org.uk
