17 June 2026
Click to slide down
Home » News » Greater Essex Makes Its Mark at UKREiiF 2026
Key leaders from across Greater Essex’s public and private sectors engaged with investor markets at UKREiiF 2026, the UK’s premier Real Estate, Infrastructure and Investment Forum, delivering a unified, compelling vision for one of the nation’s most powerful economic engines.
The Greater Essex Hub became one of the most sought-after destinations at the 20,000-strong event. More than 800 visitors from over 580 different organisations made their way through its doors across just three days, with panel discussions packed to capacity and an atmosphere buzzing with ambition, energy and momentum.
From infrastructure and housing delivery to skills, energy, culture and coastal renewal, Greater Essex brought together an outstanding range of speakers, partners and delegates to tackle the big questions shaping the region’s future. Every session reflected a clear message: Greater Essex is open, ready and primed for long-term investment.
Councillor Kieron McGill, Deputy to the Leader of the Council with responsibility for Business, when opening the evening reception, shared: “It’s fabulous to see the scale of the event and the offer, and to get fully behind Greater Essex. Essex is very much open to business.”
Julia Gregory, Chair, Greater Essex Business Board, said: “We looked at the priorities for Greater Essex and drilled them down, identifying inward investment, skills, supporting SMEs in their aspirations for growth and all infrastructure – from energy through to transport”
Beyond the event, information about Greater Essex’s investment offer reached an additional 2,000 plus attendees with direct messaging via email, while Extraordinary Essex’s social media feed about the activity saw almost 200 new followers and 18,000 impressions.
Thank you to everyone who joined the Greater Essex team throughout the week. However, for those of you who weren’t able to join us, please find key messages from our partners below.
You can also find out more about what Greater Essex can offer by looking at our Value Propositions (https://www.extraordinaryessex.co.uk/why-essex-2/sector-strengths/) and learn about our opportunities in our Property Market Review https://www.extraordinaryessex.co.uk/property-market-review/
Key moments from the programme:
Translating Connectivity into Investment: Building a Global Gateway Growth Corridor
Jackie Sadek, Urban Strategy, said: “The corridor is the closest thing the UK has to Silicon Valley, and the jewel in the crown is Stansted Airport.”
Andrew Macmillan, London Stansted Airport, said: “The connectivity we drive through the airport is what encourages investors to the region. London Stansted and wider infrastructure join up the whole of the East of England – that is the type of Silicon Valley integration we are looking for.”
They were joined by Julia Gregory, Greater Essex Business Board, Tim Newns, Office for Investment and Mayor Paul Bristow, Cambridge & Peterborough Combined Authority.
From Data Centres to Economic Growth
Holly Leonard, University of Essex, said: “Greater Essex is one of the fastest growing AI economies in the UK. We are one of the drivers of the innovation economy, which is powering UK growth”
Paul Crawford, Office for Investment, added that despite concerns around power and planning, “the UK is already in a good position as the largest data centre location, and our focus has to be on keeping it there”.
They were joined by Luisa Cardani, techUK, Clinton Hasell, KAO Data and Kate Shoesmith, British Chamber of Commerce.
Future Ready Britain: How a Modern Logistics Network Strengthens National Resilience and Economic Growth
Paul Crosbie, DP World, noted that logistics employs “more people than digital and tech, but they get the glamour.”
Lorna O’Carroll, Iceni, reinforced the need for “a change in perception” around the sector and its importance to the national economy.
Promoting the Greater Essex Property Market Review, Ricky Thakrar, Essex County Council, said: “Greater Essex connects the UK to the world and to London. Logistics enables trade through international and regional airports, ports, fantastic connectivity through the motorway network and access to one of the largest consumer markets.”
Andrew Summers, Transport East, said: “Almost all the things people use in their everyday lives – chances are it comes through Essex. That is why we have prioritised infrastructure investment in our transport strategy.”
He added that the Lower Thames Crossing will help relieve pressure on Dartford while opening up a new economic corridor between Essex and Kent, creating opportunities that must now be fully maximised.
Hollie Howe, Indurent, remarked: “We love Essex. It’s got a strong workforce, excellent transport infrastructure, and that is why we love it as a region”
Unrivalled Connectivity: Freeport Hubs and the Future of Industrial Growth
Steve Beel, Freeport East, said: ”We were born from the same process, so we have a lot in common. Freeports are now embedded in industrial strategy, which means we get a lot of engagement with the Office for Investment. Working together is a natural way of encouraging investment and achieving the power and transport infrastructure we need.”
Alison Young, Thames Freeport, agreed: “The key to planning for the Freeports and masterplanning is understanding what projects investment can unlock for Essex”.
Rupert Wood, Thames Enterprise Park, said: “From an investor point of view, they don’t see two different Freeports – they see a single unit of infrastructure. So we have a massive opportunity to drive growth, as we have London Stansted as well. If we can leverage all of this, we have the power to pull above our weight for UK plc.”
Bolaji Sofoluwe MBE, ETK Group, talked about the incentives freeports can bring. highlighting them as great places for new or existing businesses to trade internationally and innovate. She believes combining voices that link objectives to the UK industrial strategy will provide greater leverage for the investment needed to deliver greater Essex growth potential.
Stephanie Pugh, OCO Global chaired the panel.
Reinventing Small Cities: From Regeneration to Real Places
Mark Bradbury, Thurrock Council, said that community and business engagement is critical, with partners working together on key priorities such as skills, SMEs and infrastructure. He added: “We are now collaborating more than ever before. We can’t rely on waiting for changes in government policy or structure”.
Heather Cheesbrough, Southend-on-Sea City, shared: “Intensification in the city centre is key, because you then get your footfall and you can support the nighttime economy as well”
She added that this is possible “through good quality designers and architects,” as they can take on the challenge of using good design to unlock tight sites.
Lindsay Barker, Colchester City Council said: “We need a way to agree to leave politics at the door because if we don’t get a long-term view we will not get the investment we need into our city centre”.
They were joined by Melanie Leech CBE, Real Estate UK and Dr Steve Norris, Lambert Smith Hampton.
Powering the Future: Clean Energy Investment in Greater Essex
Emma Fletcher, Octopus Energy Homes, opened with: “If we’re going to have housing, we’re going to need the energy,” noting that much of the current infrastructure dates back to WW2, when it was built around military need, raising the question of whether existing capability can meet today’s ambition.
She called for more meanwhile uses on sites to help get things moving and argued that developers delivering better homes with heat pumps and batteries “should be able to go faster through planning” because they are actively helping to manage the grid.
On public engagement, she noted that “everyone and everything needs power, but not everyone understands the connection between big scale and keeping the lights on,” with the assumption being that larger infrastructure is for others, not for individual households.
Steve Knight-Gregson, National Grid, said coordination is key across Essex, stressing the importance of aligning national and regional work – particularly what National Information Standards Organisation (NISO) is doing – to support what Essex actually needs, while ensuring people understand this will deliver “wellbeing, jobs and skills for people in Essex.”
Lorna Pimlott, Infrastructure Investment reinforced the coordination point, saying that without it, there will be no reassurance to investors that there is a “very high level strategic view across all infrastructure and sequencing.” She flagged the long-term supply chain question – whether capacity exists in the region, and if not, what the plan is to deliver against it.
Nathan Sanders, SSE Energy Solutions, called this a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and urged the government to hold its course, arguing that sticking to the plan “will unlock investment, will reduce bills,” and will support housing growth within Essex.
Nick Watson, OCO Global chaired the panel.
The Blue Frontier: Scaling UK Coastal Renewal
Glyn Halksworth, Southend-on-Sea City Council, shared: “There needs to be a keen understanding of the possibility of a place…coastal communities all look different and require attention to the characteristics of the place. It requires an embracing of the passions of a place. Not necessarily leading the articulation of how that all comes together, but bringing the skill and the resource to kind of enable that to happen, however that needs to happen in each individual community, through local government.”
Chris Kerr, Davitt Jones Bould, added: “I think we need to take decisions to the people that are proximate to these issues, so we can have a national framework that’s almost like a toolkit rather than a cookie-cutter strategy, and then give people at a more regional, local level, the ability to make the right decisions.”
They were joined by Elizabeth Rapoport, NLA/Polygon Strategy and HGGT & Margate Creative Land Trust.
Building Sustainable New Communities as ‘Engines of Growth’
Darren Rodwell, Inclusive Growth Consultancy, shared: “Growth needs to be inclusive and sustainable. Harlow’s success was about listening to the communities, getting the right partners and making sure we are creating places that people want to belong to.”
Richard Cook, Latimer/Clarion Housing Group, said: “With Colchester and Tendring and Essex, we had a lot of conversations…with the young community, ages 12 -25, as they will be the ones in our homes. We got a lot of positive advocacy from that.”
Pauline Schaffer, Homes England, said: “There needs to be a strong county delivery vehicle, and in Essex, we had the local authorities, the private sector, and we could see the community was being listened to…There is so much opportunity in Essex”.
Andrew Taylor, Vistry, said, “There needs to be flexibility,” as, in terms of planning, it is hard to know what a place will be like in 30 years. He highlighted Beaulieu in Chelmsford as the perfect case study.
They were joined by Sara Eustace, Homes England and Kevin White, Montagu Evans.
Essex After Hours: Sport, Culture and Vibrant Places: Networking reception
Dan Feist on cricket – proud to be a part of Essex success – true Essex spirit of entrepreneurialism. He discussed investment in the new cricket ground, showed the plans, and welcomed guests to an evening of celebrating Essex culture and sport.
Major Infrastructure and Securing a Workforce for the Future
Samantha King, Lower Thames Crossing, said: “Infrastructure needs to be looked at in its own right, it is different to construction and trades.
“If we’re training people now, it should also be for future projects. So, looking at the 19-year industrial plan and thinking about what skills we are providing for the future workforce.”
Jonathan Stock, London Stansted Airport, said: “With our expansion, 30 million passengers will go up to 51 million. This means we will need everything from retail and hospitality to baggage handlers to aircraft engineers. We work really closely with Harlow College to meet those needs, and we also work with outreach to adults who are out of work or education and those looking to retrain later in life.
“There is incredible demand for the airport college. We can make the land available to increase the capacity of the college…looking at future aviation sector growth, we’ve got to invest now because we’re going to need those engineers in 10, 15 plus years time, so we need to plan ahead.”
Karen Spencer, Harlow College & Stansted Airport College, added: “Some of the challenges we face include getting to young people as early as possible. Young people form their view of what they’re going to do later in life between the ages of 5 and 7. The average age of current aircraft engineers is 56, so we have to train younger people now, or we are going to have big workforce problems in the future.
“There is a demand for education, and we have waiting lists. But we don’t have the staff to train them.”
Ayo Allu, AAA Project Services Ltd chaired this panel.
