Planning and Place: Delivering Local Growth

ACE and Cavendish Consulting present this special fringe reception at the Conservative Party Conference. The event is kindly hosted by Arup.

The reception will feature a keynote contribution from Sir Andy Street, former Mayor of the West Midlands, offering senior-level insight into how mayoral leadership can drive regional growth, devolution, and delivery. Drawing on his experience leading the UK's first metro mayoralty, Sir Andy will reflect on:

- The impact of devolution on planning, development and regeneration
- The role of infrastructure in supporting economic growth
- The importance of long-term leadership and delivery-focused policy

His contribution will provide valuable context for discussion and help bring together senior political and industry stakeholders around the reception's focus on informed, policy-led engagement.

Event discussion themes

- The role of planning policy in enabling development and investment certainty
- How devolved leadership can support place-based regeneration and delivery
- Turning political ambition into practical, deliverable outcomes
- Development
- Planning as the route map for growth and regeneration, unlocking infrastructure-led development and investment confidence
- Devolution
- Place-based leadership and local decision-making as catalysts for delivery
- Delivery
- Moving from ambition to outcomes: what enables effective delivery at pace, both politically and practically