Reflecting on UKREiiF: Why public-private collaboration is key to unlocking housing delivery – Davidson

For one, the conversations have certainly matured. Ambition has always fuelled discussions throughout the years – it’s the bold ideas that make a real difference. However, conversations this year demonstrated a growing determination among local authorities, investors, developers and market makers to convert this ambition into meaningful action.

This was apparent in the increasing sophistication with which places are presenting themselves to the market. Local authorities are becoming much more aware of the need to articulate a clear and coherent proposition, setting out not only their long-term ambitions but also a credible pipeline of investment and development opportunities. Investors and developers are looking for confidence and certainty, and places that can clearly demonstrate both are increasingly well-positioned to attract private capital.

However, despite this progress, there remains some disconnect between ambition and the viability of schemes. There is no shortage of investment appetite, but many projects continue to struggle to stack up financially. Challenging macroeconomic conditions are biting down on the market, including developers, while elevated construction costs are constraining development margins. This all means that, in many cases, schemes simply cannot proceed without some form of public sector intervention.

This is where effective public-private collaboration becomes critical. Across the country, we see local authorities play a more proactive role in unlocking development opportunities through targeted infrastructure investment, land assembly, planning support and innovative funding mechanisms. These interventions can make the difference between a stalled project and a deliverable scheme.

One of the most encouraging trends emerging from UKREiiF was the growing maturity of public-private partnering models. Increasingly, local authorities recognise that attracting private investment requires more than simply identifying development sites. Investors want to understand the wider growth story, the long-term vision for a place and the role that public partners can play to reduce risk and accelerate delivery.

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Alongside this, innovative funding approaches are beginning to gain traction. A number of places are exploring how future growth and value creation can be leveraged to unlock investment today. Greater Manchester’s Good Growth Fund is a great example of this approach in practice. Its success stems in part from recognising that regeneration requires a broad and flexible investment strategy rather than a narrow focus on a single asset class. Crucially, it acknowledges the role that infrastructure plays in enabling wider development outcomes, particularly housing. Ultimately, one can’t succeed without the other, so we must look at them together.

Infrastructure remains one of the most important factors in bringing forward successful development. Whether through transport improvements, utilities upgrades or wider place-making interventions, infrastructure investment often provides the foundation upon which housing and regeneration schemes can become deliverable.

The role of technology

Aside from public-private collaboration, it was certainly hard to ignore the topic on everybody’s minds: artificial intelligence (AI).

There was broad agreement that the sector has considerable opportunities to use technology to improve efficiency, streamline delivery and support better decision-making, but widespread adoption remains at an early stage. The question is, how do we translate interest in this new technology into practical application? As AI continues to evolve, it’s an issue that all industries, not just real estate, have to grapple with.

Ultimately, conversations at UKREiiF were all, in one way or another, focused on how we can speed up delivery in the face of economic challenges, growing housing delivery pressures and a government mission to deliver one-and-a-half million new homes by 2029. There is not a single answer to this, and it’s clear that our sector is evolving because of this pressure.

While the answer is by no means straightforward, my biggest takeaways are around the need for stronger partnerships, a creative approach to funding solutions and a shared commitment from both the public and private sectors to unlock developments and infrastructure that communities need.