PSEC26

This closing panel session will reflect on the key themes, challenges, opportunities and lessons emerging from the day’s discussions.

This session will explore the evolving role of development corporations within the wider landscape of local government reform, bringing together perspectives from across combined authorities, local councils, and advisory.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel is one of the UK’s most ambitious infrastructure projects - a 25km “super sewer” safeguarding London’s river for generations. Yet its legacy extends far beyond engineering. A unique collaboration between engineers, architects and artists has reimagined functional assets as vibrant public spaces, setting a benchmark for how infrastructure can enrich urban life. Attendees will gain insight into practical strategies for delivering imaginative design within complex, regulated projects - balancing cost, safety, and creativity. The session will highlight lessons transferable to other public sector estates: how to turn “hard” infrastructure into inclusive, inspiring environments that foster civic pride.

Speakers will share practical insights on how data, analytics and digital tools are helping to inform estate decisions in large and complex environments.

Although our centres face unprecedented challenges as traditional retail models decline, they remain critical economic and social assets, and the most sustainable locations for new homes and infrastructure. This session examines how public and private sector partners can work together to develop coordinated visions and approaches that align investment and delivery with local needs. We will explore practical methods for understanding community & stakeholder requirements, where tensions exist, how different funding mechanisms can enable &/or constrain collaborative working, and what governance structures support effective partnerships. We will identify common barriers to alignment and discuss what skills, ways of working and processes are needed to move from parallel agendas to genuinely joined-up place-based visions and strategies focussed on delivering viable new homes, education, healthcare, community, civic and wider commercial uses.

Delivering major social infrastructure programmes has never been more complex, or more critical. This session brings together senior leaders from government and the supply chain to explore how flagship capital programmes are being delivered in practice.

With increasing pressure to address estate condition need and provide sufficient capacity, the discussion will focus on the realities of turning government priorities in the health, education, and justice sectors into deliverable projects in both rebuild and new space. This will be set in the context of the role social infrastructure plays in the endeavour to build 1.5m new homes in this parliament.

The panellists will take questions on funding, procurement, market capacity, and the competition for a skilled workforce. They will share insight into how collaboration between clients, frameworks, determining authorities, and delivery partners is evolving to ensure public service infrastructure is high quality and resilient.

How can cross-sector collaboration and governance unlock new opportunities for sustainable estate transformation, and what are the biggest barriers and enablers to delivering integrated, future-proofed public services?