FUTURE CITIES FORUM

We are delighted that Steve Evison of Essex County Council will join discussions at our Infrastructure 2020 forum in February on planning joined-up infrastructure and housing for new communities. Steve is the Director for Strategic Commissioning & Policy in Place and Public Health at Essex County Council leading on Regeneration, Housing Growth and Garden Communities. Steve joined ECC in 2018. Prior to that Steve was a senior civil servant at the Department for Communities and

We are delighted that the Chief Digital Officer, Nathan Marsh, at smart infrastructure solutions company, Costain, will join our opening panel discussion at 'Infrastructure 2020' on 11 February. He will be talking alongside the Chief Executive of HS1, Dyan Crowther, and the Infrastructure & Projects Authority's Head of Project Finance, Matthew Vickerstaff. Nathan is a member of Costain's Executive Board, and he has over 25 years’ experience working in critical national infras

At our February Infrastructure forum in London, we will be providing a focus on those rail lines and stations that feed into London from surrounding counties as well as the important investment in rail connections for the Northern Powerhouse. This month sees work start on redeveloping Ilford Station in readiness for the Elizabeth Line. Network Rail is currently planning the major station rebuild which includes an enhanced southern entrance that will serve customers alighting

Future Cities Forum gathered speakers at Wellcome Trust's HQ in London last week, to debate how we can best develop and integrate cultural infrastructure within cities - touching on districts as diverse as Borough Yards in Southwark, Stratford in East London, Farringdon and West Kensington. Pam Alexander, who is both a board director of the London Legacy Development Corporation and a Mayor of London's Cultural Ambassador, stressed the importance of stitching the new into the

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Herbert Smith Freehills' Head of Planning in London Matthew White, will be a panel speaker at our Infrastructure 2020 forum on 11 February. Matthew is a partner in Herbert Smith Freehills' real estate division and he has more than 20 years of experience advising on all aspects of planning and development law. Projects that Matthew has worked on include the Stratford City masterplan, which delivered the Athletes' Village for the 2012 Olymp

De Markthal Rotterdam by MVRDV Architects (Image: Rotterdam Partners) What does it take to create sustainable master plans for our cities and districts and what is the range of expertise involved to create sustainable plans that are flexible enough to accommodate development over the life of these projects? At our March forum being held at the Architectural Association, we hear from different master planners involved in development our UK cities and new towns as well as archi

CGI of proposed North Westgate development in Peterborough (Chapman Taylor) We are delighted that Peterborough City Council's Executive Director for Place & Economy, Steve Cox will join Future Cities Forum's 'Infrastructure 2020' event at Herbert Smith Freehills on 11 February. Steve Cox is leading one of the only joint services in the UK concentrated on developing both a City unitary (Peterborough) and County Council area (Cambridgeshire), and completing a wholly joined up m

Visual from SPPARC of proposed pedestrianisation of Olympia Way in West London Principal Trevor Morris of architecture practice SPPARC will be discussing the importance of carefully designed and curated retail, restaurant and entertainment elements across cultural districts at our round table discussions this week. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launching his cultural infrastructure plan, warned that London's number of domestic visitors is waning. This raises the question o

Image: From the FT Weekend 11/12 January 2020 by Hugo Cox on the 'biotech boom' and the region We are very pleased to be able to include both local and national journalists at our forums to report on the issues of 'the moment' on city topics. At our forum in Cambridge last November, we introduced Cambridge Ahead and Bidwells to the Financial Times for media interviews, both of whom have now been written about in this weekend's article, 'Cambridge Clever'. (see above) The arti

We are delighted that Alex Williams, Director of City Planning at TFL will be speaking at our infrastructure and transport forum on 11th February at Herbert Smith Freehills in London. Alex's responsibilities include working with the Mayor to develop and deliver the Transport Strategy for London, and developing and gaining powers for major infrastructure projects such as tube extensions and new river crossings. He provides transport advice on Land Use Planning applications ref