24 May Harrogate Property and Construction Lunch

Tate Group sponsored the Harrogate Property and Construction Lunch with guest speakers from Harrogate Borough Council Planning Department – which made for a very interesting afternoon!

We had a great turn out with 85 industry leaders, including estate agents, architects, legal firms and service providers, at the event held at the Majestic Hotel on May 14th.

Following lunch, Trevor Watson, Director of Economy & Culture and Linda Marfitt Executive Officer of Housing Delivery and Strategic Sites provided insight in to their ‘step change’ for the delivery of 13,377 new homes, approximately 637 each year, up until 2035.

Our guest speaker Bruce Allan, Partner and Head of Commercial Valuations in the North at Carter Jonas Estate Agents, shared the current position of the retail and commercial market and how these are affected by planning.

“The retail market is polarised and we continue to experience significant change. Undoubtedly some properties are being affected by decreasing rents, empty rates liability and tenants’ ‘preying’ on landlord’s holding cost vulnerability. This will inevitably lead to a change and consolidation in certain locations; this may lead to alternative use opportunities for residential or other businesses.”

Shane Tate, Managing Director of Tate Group said: “It was a really well attended event and great to see so many companies here with a vested interest in the future of Harrogate from a residential and commercial perspective.

“It was very interesting to hear about Harrogate’s forward-looking strategic plan to tackle the alligator jaws situation, a term used to describe the gap between residential planning consents and getting developments starting on site.

“My bigger concerns are, what is Harrogate doing to bring forward sites that support economic growth in the town, particularly in the town centre where something needs to be done to support the ailing retail and highly populated hospitality sectors.

“We need to increase the dwell time and one way to do that would be to put some high quality commercial and residential development in town so that people can live and work in the town centre.”

Greg Smallwood, Land and Development Consultant for Linley and Simpson, said: “It’s been an extremely informative event and nice to hear what the council have to say. However, we live in an over-populated island with an archaic planning system!”

Attendees included, William Birch & Sons Ltd, Planning Potential, Rider Levett Bucknall, Triton Construction Ltd, QUATTRO PROPERTY GROUP Indigo Planning, AECOM Ltd, Align Property Partners, V&A, Homes Ltd, CEG, WSP, LCF Law, Coles Solicitors Ltd, SYSTRA, 186 Property Solutions, Faithful+Gould, Coda Planning Limited, SMR Architects Ltd, CPC Project Services, Linley & Simpson, GHM Partnership, nj-ARCHITECTS, Absolute Commercial Interiors, I D Planning, Harrogate Steel, BWB Consulting Limited, Sir Robert McAlpine, Geoffrey Robinson Limited, Arlington Contract Furniture, Farrell & Clark LLP, Lindum Group, Turner & Townsend, VINCI CONSTRUCTION UK, WYG, Berwins, Dragonfly Consulting, V&A Property Group Ltd, Engie Regeneration Ltd, Darnton B3 Limited and Align Property Partners.

Thanks to everyone for coming from Tate Group, Tate Estates, Tate Consulting and Harris CM Ltd