Hallam Land at UKREiiF 2026: “A productive and energising week!”
Our team spent a busy few days at UKREiiF and, in this article Lauren White, Senior Land and Planning Manager at Hallam Land, shares her impressions from her first time at the event in Leeds.
From scale, to sector sentiment and why government momentum matters for housing delivery…
My first UKREiiF was a bigger event than I was expecting – Leeds was packed, buzzing and full of opportunity and insightful discussions.
My colleagues and I attended for several reasons, with a key focus Hallam Land’s role in the government’s new towns programme and our role in supporting the major urban expansion in Milton Keynes.
But while we were there to support on that particular project, UKREiiF also gave us a valuable chance to reconnect with familiar faces and meet new contacts.
The scale was outstanding with around 16,000 delegates plus a host of fringe events – it felt like a who’s who of the sector. Conversations across panel events helped reinforce Hallam’s position as a thought leader on large‑scale delivery and gave us time to deepen partnerships with local authorities and other stakeholders.
The sentiment was interesting with the market mood mixed. Economic headwinds remain and residential markets are challenging, but it was really encouraging to see cautious optimism among delegates, with a clear sense that conditions will stabilise and momentum can be rebuilt through resilience and steady progress.
A recurring theme was frustration with regulatory complexity and a clear call for pragmatic reforms so we can get on with delivering homes and infrastructure. But from a planning perspective I left encouraged by the signals coming from government and local authority representatives. There is a growing recognition that the overall direction of policy is now broadly right, and that the priority should be consistency and allowing the system to bed-in, rather than further continued change. What is needed now is a focus on how we translate that policy into delivery on the ground, through effective partnerships and a shared commitment to making schemes work in practice.
Government momentum, underpinned by a stable policy environment, strong local partnerships and a clear focus on delivery, is exactly what schemes like Milton Keynes and projects across the country need to succeed.
Overall, my first UKREiiF was a productive and energising week and a reminder that despite short‑term challenges, the industry is determined to collaborate, simplify and deliver at scale.
Lauren (centre) with Paul Thomas, Director of Planning and Placemaking at Milton Keynes City Council and Peter Glazebrook, Executive Director at Hallam Land.
Lauren is a Senior Land and Planning Manager, part of the Hallam Land South Midlands team. Joining Hallam Land in 2021 from a land and planning consultancy, Lauren now manages commercial, contractual and technical matters on projects at various stages of the strategic land lifecycle across the south Midlands region.
