The Spinningfields setting was apt, with the implications of Greater Manchester’s settlement with central government for the ongoing strength of the North West’s property market the big question up for debate.
Big names from the agency, development and planning worlds were Invited to pose questions to a panel that pitched council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein alongside Capital & Centric’s Tim Heatley, Savills’ Jeremy Hinds, HS2’s Jamie Kerr and Mills & Reeves Anne Fairhurst.
Aside from the big devolution discussion, the panel were grilled on development funding, housing policy, business rates, and whether agents or developers knew best when it came to their occupiers’ needs.
The audience was also given a rare glimpse of insight into Bernstein’s negotiations with the Treasury over business rates, before retiring to the bar to continue the discussion over drinks.
See next week’s Estates Gazette for a full report on the event.
