Vision, Opportunity, & Delivery
The Place West London Conference is the heart of the event – a forum for discussion and debate about the issues central to maintaining West London as a successful place.
The structured 2012 programme is a mix of plenaries from political, business, economic and community experts – sessions which laid out the visions, issue the challenges, and set out the opportunities.
Plenary Session One
9.00 Registration & Networking. Browse the exhibition and Regeneration Showcase
9.55 Opening Plenary – Chair’s welcome to Place West London 2012
10.00 Keynote Address: Transport – Stephen Hammond MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, whose portfolio includes transport in London.
10.20 Keynote – Aviation: What next? Daniel Moylan, Mayoral adviser, TfL Board Member
10.35 Keynote - Connections: What does West London need? Lord Clive Soley
10.50 Keynote – Business: What are the issues for West London occupiers? Alan Holland, SEGRO
11.05 Keynote – Infrastructure: The Key to Regeneration – Cllr Ravi Govindia, Leader, LB Wandsworth
11.20 Coffee & Networking. Browse the exhibition and Regeneration Showcase
Workshop Streams – Session One
Workshops are split into two streams, one focussed on places, and one on economy and skills. They run in parallel, allowing you to choose which to go to, or whether to use the time for further networking. Workshops last about 45 minutes, and feature several speakers with a high level of audience participation & debate.
Stream 1
11.45 Hayes
Hayes is a major regeneration opportunity. With a Crossrail station arriving, and West London’s biggest employment generator – Heathrow – just around the corner, it should be a major wealth generator and an employment hotspot. However, it has high unemployment and deprivation. It does also have massive opportunity – with The Old Vinyl Factory emerging from the derelict EMI site, and new opportunity on the former Nestle site, what can be done to give the town the prosperity its location deserves?
Speakers: Martyn Evans (Cathedral Group), Cllr Douglas Mills (LB Hillingdon), David Brough, Hayes Town Partnership;
12.30 Nine Elms
Nine Elms is one of London’s, even Europe’s largest and most ambitious regeneration programmes. It aims to provide 16,000 new homes, 25,000 new jobs, new schools, parks, culture and the arts. What progress is being made?
Speakers: Cllr Lib Peck (LB Lambeth), Helen Fisher (Programme Director, Nine Elms), Matt Townend, St James; Chris Law, Vauxhall One BID
Stream 2
11.45 Housing – delivery & place
Housing – specifically providing new homes – remains a major issue. In places like Hammersmith, where land is at a premium, delivering affordable or social housing is especially tough. New models are emerging for funding delivery, and we can hear about them here. Also, we’ll discuss what more can be done to assist the delivery of such housing in urban London. As well as delivery, we’ll discuss placemaking, and people, and what is new and working well in the area.
Speakers: Cllr Andrew Johnson, LB Hammersmith & Fulham; Nick Taylor, GLA; Paul Sandilands, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands; Jacqui Clarke, SKNT
12.30 Skills laboratory
Realising employment opportunity often requires developing the skills of the local workforce. Two organisations which have helped upskill the workforce to fill jobs created by their endeavours are Westfield and Heathrow Airport. Here we get an update on their activity, from which there is much to learn for others who wish to help create and fill significant numbers of jobs.
Speakers: William Addy & Ciara O’Reilly (Westfield); Sundeep Sangha (Heathrow Airport)
Stream 3
12.30 Earls Court Update
Much has happened at Earls Court in the past year. We will get an update on progress on this mega scheme from developer Capital & Counties
Speaker: Richard Powell, Capital & Counties
13.00 Lunch & Networking. Browse the exhibition and Regeneration Showcase
Workshop streams – session two
13.45 Schools, Skills and Burning Streets
Looking at education from an economic and business perspective, and in Pecha Kucha format, we will examine how schools work as economic drivers, the role of business in running and supporting schools, examine why are there still skills shortages in a recession, look at West London’s present and future skills needs, new approaches like UTCs, and the role of the education sector in avoiding riots like those in 2011. By looking at successful examples we will see what can be built upon.
Speakers: Andrew Ward, Director of Corporate
Relations, Brunel University; Sir Alec Reed; Peter Smith, Director, Urban City; Paul Holliday, Chief Financial Officer, Queensmead/Northwood Schools; Andy Rowell, Borough Commander, Ealing; Carole Portman Smith, Director, Urban Scholars; Lorrraine Collins, Executive Director for Enterprise and Development, Uxbridge College; Les Drussel, Chairman, Ruislip Manor Chamber of Commerce
14.45 Congestion, Transport & Jobs
Ask 100 West London Businesses what their biggest issue is, and they’ll say congestion. It blocks deliveries, staff getting to and from work, or travelling to meetings. It makes business more expensive and less efficient. It’s not just roads, for many congestion in the air is the biggest issue – Heathrow, should it expand, or not? We’ll explore the issues around congestion, and see what the consequences of decisions taken now might be.
Speakers: Simon Lanyon, SEGRO; Rory Meakin, Tax Payers Alliance; Scott Witchalls, Peter Brett Associates
14.00 Big Schemes Update – Wembley, Heart of Harrow & Harrow View
West London is full of ambitious, big schemes – Earls Court, Wembley City and the Heart of Harrow are among the most ambitious, and have made significant progress in the last 12 months. This session will bring you up to date on all three.
Speakers: Ben Giddens (Quintain); Stephen Kelly (LB Harrow)
14.45 White City
There’s a wind of change blowing through White City. With Westfield’s extension, the TV Centre changing hands, proposals for the Dairy Crest site, and Imperial West it’s a genuine hive of activity. But with the BBC moving more people away from the area, what is the future for the whole community? What will the employment landscape look like?
Speakers: Eric Parry, Eric Parry Architects; Duncan Bower (Westfield);
15.30 Coffee & Networking. Browse the exhibition and Regeneration Showcase
16.00 Closing Plenary – Old Oak & Park Royal – West London’s Olympics?
Keynote: Sir Terry Farrell, Farrells
Panel: Colin Wilson, GLA; Nick Botterill (LB Hammersmith & Fulham); Mike Cummings, SEGRO
Perhaps the most ambitious transformation in West London is the vision for 70,000 jobs and 10,000 homes on a disused railway yard between Willesden Junction and Wormwood Scrubs at the intersection of HS2 and Crossrail. Park Royal City has been dubbed West London’s Olympics for the regeneration potential it offers. And it’s big – but it is not, as the Olympic Park was, £9bn of development in the middle of a wasteland. It is next to Park Royal, already home to over 60,000 jobs. How can this opportunity be realised in a way that makes its surroundings stronger?
17.00 Closing address, and networking drinks in the exhibition area. Browse the exhibition and Regeneration Showcase
18.30 Dinner (at the Hilton Olympia)
* = invited speaker
