Kate Hainsworth, YU Associate Consultant
Sunshine nourished ideas and partnerships at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) 2025, hosted at Leeds dock on the banks of the River Aire. The three-day extravaganza welcomed over 16,000 delegates from national and local government, investors, developers, clients and the wider built environment to talk about investment, regeneration and the state of our regions. Thanks to Midlands Innovation (MI) who generously shared their ‘Universities Drive Growth’ pavilion beyond their region (see here for their reflections) other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and regional groupings, like Yorkshire Universities (YU), had a home for the duration and a chance to compare notes and develop relationships.
What did we learn?
There is a keen and growing appetite for collaboration across HEIs. In the context of an existential funding crisis, and global threats that require thought and agility to navigate, it is heartening to see people learn, share and speak up for core values. It is also pleasing to hear those outside the sector speaking up too – local authority chief executives, mayors, developers, data specialists and investors all recognising the value of knowledge exchange and seeing HEIs as part of their regional toolkit: a reason to be cheerful in fractured times.
YU has always championed place for impact. Whilst our membership is diverse, HEIs value the glue YU provides for cross-regional collaboration and expertise in partnering our public sector anchor institutions: the NHS, climate action and the local and mayoral authorities. Recently that has been articulated through a series of Memorandum of Undestandings (MoUs) and agreements. Our strategy focuses on driving regional economic development, including skills. Our universities value the headspace and connections as YU convenes a common agenda. We also embed HEIs into regional policy by facilitating research cooperation between academics and local, regional, and national government.
Some UKREiiF conversations are new territory for HEIs. Social value continues to present implementation issues given under-resourcing from stretched local authorities to organise, and then police, the promised social value deliverables that make new developments comfortable, safe and enjoyable places to live. As fellow place-makers with a long-term stake in the future of their region, HEIs also care about where their staff and students live and how they interact with the towns and cities that host them. As all budgets tighten, ‘doing the right thing’ becomes a joint and more urgent consideration.
Time for considering jointly or urgently can be hard to find. HEI collectives (like YU, MI, Universities for North East England, London Higher and others across the UK) are valued for the speed at which a single conversation can be circulated around a group of HEIs and action agreed. Combined and local authorities around the event were discussing agility and flexibility as well as working together to respond to developments. HEIs are well placed to be part of that conversation through their membership groupings as well as individually. In Yorkshire we have been talking a lot about what delivers best for sub-regional/regional priorities, as opposed to town and gown.
Devolution is well underway, as was evidenced by the number of combined authority pavilions and platform speakers. It will profoundly change the way we think about place and its governance. As mayors move to take up their single settlements and become more established, relationships will be needed with their constituent local authorities as well as with each other. They need to be expert communicators and collaborators. The same skills will be required of HEIs and their regional partners in the years ahead, and most are already fully committed to the process. Seeing chief executives of Leeds and Bradford share a platform talking about their common commitment to building place together was just one example among many, of the determination to make common cause (with a briefing provided by YU through HEI expertise across region).
Our takeaway from UKREiiF
Regions are more than ready and able to collaborate. We’ve adapted to the new normal. Let’s get cracking.
