60 ULI UK members enjoyed glorious views from the 9^th floor of London’s City Hall for the second event in the Public Private Partnerships series convened by the UK Young Leaders committee (open to all members).

Participants heard a series of expert and extremely candid presentations on what constitutes an effective public private partnership, with good and bad examples from across the UK.

Robin Dobson, Director of Shopping Centre Development at Hammerson emphasised the crucial importance of strong leadership and also highlighted the “healthy tension” that exists in long-term partnerships, which can handle differences constructively. Alex Robinson, Project Director at Grosvenor Britain and Ireland showcased Barton Oxford LLP, the new partnership between Grosvenor and Oxford City council, and noted the importance of clear objectives and communication.

John Forkin, Managing Director of Marketing Derby shared a fascinating case study around how Derby reacted to the loss of two major contracts and 3000 jobs in one week. John reminded attendees that: “When you’re placemaking stuff happens – and you need to be fleet of foot…Momentum counts for everything in investor confidence.”

James Snape, Partner for Infrastructure, Construction and Energy at Nabarro, outlined some critical issues around procurement, which became the surprise hot topic of the evening!

Having established the core themes of collaboration, leadership, good communication and trust, the ULI moderator, Alex Notay, then challenged participants to come up with 3 innovative big ideas for making public private partnerships more effective. Break-out groups addressed planning, finance, placemaking, procurement and development. After some intense debate and discussion with the speakers, who moved between tables, some practical suggestions were presented to the room.

A summary note of these will be available on the website shortly but for now our sincere thanks go to our expert speakers, our ULI UK members at the GLA for hosting in such a superb venue and to Grosvenor for their generous sponsorship.

For further details about the UK Young Leaders visit uk.uli.org/young-leaders or to join the council contact Agnes Gomori 0207 487 9570