The Pegasus Report - Issue #129

A busy week in Yorkshire! Work has begun to transform a road in Leeds city centre road into a new £1.7m park and green space. At Leeds Bradford Airport, artists impressions have been released showing what the inside of the new £150m terminal will look like, it has been designed to “excellent” BREEAM standards, which means it will be one of the most environmentally-friendly terminals anywhere in the world. There are some major projects coming to Leeds over the next few years, see a round-up here. In Hull, work is set to start om a £16m contract to build the new St Anne’s Special School and supported housing development in Hessle. In Bradford, contractor auditions will soon start for the £18.5m redevelopment of the former Odeon Cinema into a 4000-capacity live entertainment and events venue.

In Scotland, Dundee City Council has entered into an exclusivity agreement with a company that plans to bring a 4,000 capacity esports arena to the Waterfront.

In the North West, work has started on a glass dome ‘meeting pod’ for the rooftop of a 1960s office building in city centre. In Liverpool work is due to start before the end of the year on the long-awaited £54m Liverpool Littlewoods Film and TV Studios.

In Birmingham, a massive BTR scheme (995 units) is set to start construction in Q1 of 2021.

In the South East, following the decreased demand due to Covid-19, London City Airport will be pausing its £500m expansion programme at the end of the year. In Bedfordshire, Willmott Dixon has secured another blue-light project to deliver an £18m custody suite for Bedfordshire Police. Plans have been unveiled for a new tower at 2 Finsbury Avenue at Broadgate, in London ahead of a planning submission in the autumn. Skanska has secured the £72m contract to build new offices in St James Square in London. A contract has been secured to complete the detailed design for the £22m redevelopment of Colindale Tube station on London Underground’s Northern line.

The government is set to invite bids for a new £12bn investment in affordable home building. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick will launch a prospectus this week inviting bids for funding for 180,000 new homes. Construction will be delivered over five years from 2021 to 2026. Nearly £7.5bn will be delivered outside London by Homes England while the Greater London Authority has been offered £4bn.

The convenience retailer Co-op is set to launch over 65 stores new and extended stores, with more than 100 further outlets receiving major makeovers as part of a £130m store investment programme creating up to 1,000 local jobs over the coming months.

In the latest meet the boss series, I am joined by Beth Revell, co owner of the recently established (January 2020!) The Blue Iris Partnership. This is a great chat where amongst other things we discuss why there are a lack of female leaders in the industry, how collaborating with other small consultancies is enabling their business to work in the public sector, which is traditionally dominated by the larger consultancies. Lastly we discuss Beth’s views on the future of the industry. I really enjoyed this chat; You can instantly feel Beth’s passion to changing the industry for the better and I think this episode will serve as a real inspiration for any women in the industry keen to progress to management.

This week’s technology news.

There is lots of news in our ‘green’ section this week, from mini towns to enviromentally friendly concrete and how building to net-zero standards by 2025 doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

This week’s global news.

This week’s first article is definitely worth five minutes of your time.

Have a great week!