At the end of May, eight NatureSpace team members attended the annual UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure forum three day event in Leeds to raise awareness about what we do, connect with people across the industry and to champion the reality that development and nature recovery can go hand-in-hand.
As part of our attendance, we hosted a popular panel discussion entitled ‘Have your Cake and Eat it: Speed up Development AND Drive Nature Recovery’ to hear different perspectives on how development and nature recovery need not be in conflict (and feast upon locally made newt-embellished cupcakes). Many thanks to our fantastic panellists: Beccy Speight, Chief Executive, RSPB; Sarah Greenwood, Assistant Director, Sustainability and Design, Homes England; Jennie Colville, Head of ESG and Sustainability, Landsec; James Porter, Ecology Director, Lichfield West Midlands Traded Services Ltd; and our own Dr Tom Tew, Chief Executive, NatureSpace Partnership, as Chair.
Alongside this, we ran an exhibition stand to talk all things NatureSpace with the 16,000 developers, investors, councils and public sector leaders attending. It was a pleasure to meet so many new faces, hear diverse viewpoints and experiences and explore exciting opportunities for collaboration and partnership.
We also had a few (cuddly) newts escape across the venues, which seemed to garner a fair bit of attention – however, despite them showing up in some rather unlikely places (one was caught hanging from a balcony, another atop a Royal Armouries cannon!) they certainly didn’t ‘get in the way’, and (we hope) offered some welcome light-hearted fun amidst the intense business networking.
Finally, we were proud to win the ‘Sustainability Champion’ award, recognising our continued commitment to environmentally responsible practices and meaningful impacts.
UKREiiF 2025 was a fantastic opportunity to strengthen relationships, share insights and stay up-to-date with sector developments and we’re already very much looking forward to our return next year.
