UKREiiF | All the news, announcements from 2026

Fresh from UKREiiF, property professionals joined up with workers in healthcare, law, accounting, tech, hospitality, local government, and more for a 5.5-kilometre run and two-kilometre walk in Heaton Park on Thursday evening.

Politics, pools, and pooches.

More than 16,000 property professionals descended on the West Yorkshire city en masse for the property expo and its vibrant fringe. Here are the big talking points from this year’s convention for those in the North and Midlands.

Aneel Mussarat’s property company has acquired the firm that owns the iconic Manchester building and has promised to not be a passive owner.

The affordable homes consortium has been given the green light for 240 flats on the former DW Sports site in Warrington, the first of a planned 3,000 homes over the next 12 years.

Reform’s Jake Berry says the party is not wedded to ideology as it draws up its policy platform, adding that deregulation, devolution and delivery could form the basis of the party’s general election manifesto in three years.

A report has been lodged with the council seeking to clear the way for up to 390 homes off Starling Road in Ainsworth by the housebuilder.

Winners will be revealed during the 20th annual ceremony celebrating construction excellence on 2 July at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool.

Town and city centres will become “deserts” if the government does not cut taxes for bars and restaurants, according to the industry body’s chief executive Allen Simpson.

The committee voted against officer recommendation to block Wain Estates’ Junction scheme, citing significant harm caused by the loss of an area of woodland among its reasons for refusal.

The last 10 years have brought us wars, political uncertainty at home and abroad, Brexit, and a pandemic. Panellists at Place North’s Wednesday breakfast conference discussed how the sector has delivered amid the chaos and how it will continue to do so in the future. 

Property group Henry Boot’s development division will now be led on a permanent basis as managing director by Hamer Boot, who joined the business in 2013.

“This is only the start on devolution,” secretary of state Steve Reed told Place on Wednesday, in an exclusive interview after his stage session with Pat Ritchie at the Leeds-based investment conference.

Consulted on in January, St Helens Council has now submitted proposals to revamp and extend the historic town centre building, much of which has been closed in recent years.

The street food and events business has its eye on the ground floor of the shopping centre’s multi-storey car park after closing its Manchester home when plans for a 43-storey tower on the site emerged.

The industrial developer wants to refurbish Imperial Brands’ R&D facility off Evans Road and build sheds on the adjoining 16-acre site.

With long-term tenant JMW soon to depart for 125 Deansgate, the Canal & River Trust is positioning the 32,000 sq ft Manchester office block as a refurbishment opportunity.

Morgan Sindall Construction is the main contractor for the 115,000 sq ft educational building, which is being developed in partnership by the council and Blackpool and The Fylde College.

Against a tumultuous political backdrop, the chancellor was in buoyant mood at UKREiiF as she announced hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across the North and the scrapping of judicial reviews that slow down large infrastructure projects, while also defending the government’s first two years in office.