Insider Yorkshire Property Industry Awards 2024 Interviews

Insider Media

Interviews with judges at Insider's Yorkshire Property Industry Awards 2024, which took place on 19 Sep at New Dock Hall, Leeds

Transcript

00:00Hi, Ian Leitch here, I'm editor of Yorkshire Business Insider. I'm here tonight for the

00:13Yorkshire Property Industry Awards, a great gathering of all the best of the regional

00:18property industry. We've got 17 awards to hand out across all specialisms. It's a great

00:24opportunity for people in the sector to come and enjoy a good evening with their colleagues

00:28and celebrate their achievements in the last year. Firstly, we're going to hear from a

00:32few of the participants. So, I'm delighted to be joined now by Andrew Argent, Senior

00:39Business Development Manager from Event Sponsor Close Brothers Property Finance. Andrew, Close

00:45has been a long-term supporter of this dinner. What do you like about it? We have, Ian, we've

00:51been a supporter of this award ceremony since 2017, so it's very much to see ourselves as

00:57a long-term sponsor of the event. I really think it's a great platform to celebrate

01:02the property industry. It's certainly been difficult over the past two years, and I think

01:08those small wins really do need to be celebrated. I think both the private sector and the public

01:14sector come together here, they collaborate, and you can see some of the great work they

01:19do, the pacemaking that they achieve, and hopefully the new-form government will take

01:23that on board so we can accelerate house building further. And I do think that this

01:28award ceremony does really support the industry as a whole. Excellent, good point. And for you

01:34in business development, does it work around brand awareness as well for you? Absolutely. Our

01:40name is plastered all over the event, not just for this evening, but also in terms of the branding

01:48and the guidelines that go out beforehand, and there's lots of entry points into the

01:52publications. Our marketing team are very keen to support this event because we don't have an

01:58office up here in Yorkshire, but it's a really good way to get our name around and show people

02:04that we are active in the area and continue to be so. We're very grateful for it at Insider.

02:09Who's on your table tonight, Andrew? Quite a few different people from different parts of

02:14the industry. So we've got some of our surveyors, so professional relationships are very important

02:19to us, but also some clients as well, the likes of Situ and some of the guys from Squirrel Properties

02:26as well. So yeah, a whole plethora really, but looking forward to a fun evening and hopefully

02:32see you guys again next year. So I'm delighted to be joined by Clare Wilkinson, partner in the

02:36commercial real estate team at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson here in Leeds. Clare was a judge

02:42for these awards. Clare, what do you think of the judging process and the quality of the entries

02:46then? Hi Ian, thanks for the introduction. It's been a fantastic experience. Thank you so much

02:51for asking me to be a judge. I was surprised by the number of entries, by the quality of the

02:57entries. It's a real testament to Yorkshire real estate, to the fantastic quality of the projects

03:04that we're doing throughout the region. It was interesting to see a lot of sector specific

03:09projects that we're doing as well, particularly around healthcare, life sciences. And yes,

03:15congratulations to everyone who's been shortlisted and to all the winners. Brilliant. What do you like

03:19about the event particularly? This is a great event. So I'm fortunate enough to go to lots of

03:25events. It's really well organised. It's really well attended. Yorkshire property people don't

03:31shy away from a good party Ian, as you'll know. So it's always a good event to catch up with old

03:36friends and of course make new contacts as well. Wonderful. And you know, there's you as a real

03:42estate lawyer, Clare. How do you sense activity? Is the level of activity and the moon out there

03:47currently? It's improving, which is great. It feels as though we've been through the rocky

03:53patch and the confidence is returning. You just have to look at the number of cranes in the sky

03:58in and around Yorkshire to see that. I think we're not quite out of the woods yet, but there's a lot

04:05of positivity there. And certainly for us as a business, we are busy now with a lot of big

04:10projects, real estate work, which hasn't been done for a few years. So yeah, it's great to see that

04:16returning, particularly to the Yorkshire region. OK, I'm delighted to be joined by Julian Pearce,

04:22founder of the PR and communications agency YASPA, which is a first time sponsor of this dinner.

04:29Julian, you've attended this event, of course, for several years now. What do you like about it?

04:35I think it's the event to be out, to be honest. You see everyone who is anyone in the property

04:40industry within Yorkshire. It's a chance to celebrate some fantastic projects and schemes

04:46over the past 12 to 18 months and just a chance to celebrate what's good about the property

04:50industry in Yorkshire. And do you think it's probably going to be good for your brand awareness

04:55and development? Yeah, definitely. I think we chose to sponsor this award. We're an agency

05:01based in Leeds, only founded about a year ago, but the built environment is certainly one of the

05:06sectors that we really focus on. We have a number of clients in the built environment, not just in

05:12Yorkshire, but in Manchester, London, Cornwall, across the UK. But I think what sets Yorkshire

05:18apart is there's a real passion for this industry here. And I think coming to an event like this

05:22really showcases that. Yeah. And what are you seeing out there at the moment, Julian,

05:27activity-wise? What's going on? I think in terms of activity, there's probably as much

05:34going on as I've ever seen. And I think that probably belies a general lack of confidence.

05:40There seems to be an aura of a lack of confidence, but actually there's an awful lot going on at the

05:44moment. I've been in Leeds for 20 years now, and just looking at things like the annual crane

05:49survey that Deloitte do, activity is as strong as ever. I think there's some really exciting

05:53projects coming online as well. What we're probably seeing is more activity from the

05:59private sector. A lot of the work is private sector-led. Obviously, the public sector and

06:03the council have a huge role to play in facilitating that. But it's great to see the private sector

06:07really taking a lead in terms of regenerating areas and bringing new parts of town back into

06:12life. Yeah, fantastic. Who's on your table tonight? We've got a really good table tonight.

06:17So we've got a good mixture of public and private sector. We've got the co-chairs of

06:20Young Entrepreneurs and Property, Sarah and Jordan joining us. We've got Angela Barnacle

06:25from the council. We've got some delegates from ABP as well, Associated British Ports,

06:32and Charles Johnson from Leeds Bradford Airports, and a couple of representatives from Jasper as well.

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