Interviews with judges at Insider's Yorkshire Property Industry Awards 2024, which took place on 19 Sep at New Dock Hall, Leeds
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00:00Hi, Ian Leitch here, I'm editor of Yorkshire Business Insider. I'm here tonight for the
00:13Yorkshire Property Industry Awards, a great gathering of all the best of the regional
00:18property industry. We've got 17 awards to hand out across all specialisms. It's a great
00:24opportunity for people in the sector to come and enjoy a good evening with their colleagues
00:28and celebrate their achievements in the last year. Firstly, we're going to hear from a
00:32few of the participants. So, I'm delighted to be joined now by Andrew Argent, Senior
00:39Business Development Manager from Event Sponsor Close Brothers Property Finance. Andrew, Close
00:45has been a long-term supporter of this dinner. What do you like about it? We have, Ian, we've
00:51been a supporter of this award ceremony since 2017, so it's very much to see ourselves as
00:57a long-term sponsor of the event. I really think it's a great platform to celebrate
01:02the property industry. It's certainly been difficult over the past two years, and I think
01:08those small wins really do need to be celebrated. I think both the private sector and the public
01:14sector come together here, they collaborate, and you can see some of the great work they
01:19do, the pacemaking that they achieve, and hopefully the new-form government will take
01:23that on board so we can accelerate house building further. And I do think that this
01:28award ceremony does really support the industry as a whole. Excellent, good point. And for you
01:34in business development, does it work around brand awareness as well for you? Absolutely. Our
01:40name is plastered all over the event, not just for this evening, but also in terms of the branding
01:48and the guidelines that go out beforehand, and there's lots of entry points into the
01:52publications. Our marketing team are very keen to support this event because we don't have an
01:58office up here in Yorkshire, but it's a really good way to get our name around and show people
02:04that we are active in the area and continue to be so. We're very grateful for it at Insider.
02:09Who's on your table tonight, Andrew? Quite a few different people from different parts of
02:14the industry. So we've got some of our surveyors, so professional relationships are very important
02:19to us, but also some clients as well, the likes of Situ and some of the guys from Squirrel Properties
02:26as well. So yeah, a whole plethora really, but looking forward to a fun evening and hopefully
02:32see you guys again next year. So I'm delighted to be joined by Clare Wilkinson, partner in the
02:36commercial real estate team at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson here in Leeds. Clare was a judge
02:42for these awards. Clare, what do you think of the judging process and the quality of the entries
02:46then? Hi Ian, thanks for the introduction. It's been a fantastic experience. Thank you so much
02:51for asking me to be a judge. I was surprised by the number of entries, by the quality of the
02:57entries. It's a real testament to Yorkshire real estate, to the fantastic quality of the projects
03:04that we're doing throughout the region. It was interesting to see a lot of sector specific
03:09projects that we're doing as well, particularly around healthcare, life sciences. And yes,
03:15congratulations to everyone who's been shortlisted and to all the winners. Brilliant. What do you like
03:19about the event particularly? This is a great event. So I'm fortunate enough to go to lots of
03:25events. It's really well organised. It's really well attended. Yorkshire property people don't
03:31shy away from a good party Ian, as you'll know. So it's always a good event to catch up with old
03:36friends and of course make new contacts as well. Wonderful. And you know, there's you as a real
03:42estate lawyer, Clare. How do you sense activity? Is the level of activity and the moon out there
03:47currently? It's improving, which is great. It feels as though we've been through the rocky
03:53patch and the confidence is returning. You just have to look at the number of cranes in the sky
03:58in and around Yorkshire to see that. I think we're not quite out of the woods yet, but there's a lot
04:05of positivity there. And certainly for us as a business, we are busy now with a lot of big
04:10projects, real estate work, which hasn't been done for a few years. So yeah, it's great to see that
04:16returning, particularly to the Yorkshire region. OK, I'm delighted to be joined by Julian Pearce,
04:22founder of the PR and communications agency YASPA, which is a first time sponsor of this dinner.
04:29Julian, you've attended this event, of course, for several years now. What do you like about it?
04:35I think it's the event to be out, to be honest. You see everyone who is anyone in the property
04:40industry within Yorkshire. It's a chance to celebrate some fantastic projects and schemes
04:46over the past 12 to 18 months and just a chance to celebrate what's good about the property
04:50industry in Yorkshire. And do you think it's probably going to be good for your brand awareness
04:55and development? Yeah, definitely. I think we chose to sponsor this award. We're an agency
05:01based in Leeds, only founded about a year ago, but the built environment is certainly one of the
05:06sectors that we really focus on. We have a number of clients in the built environment, not just in
05:12Yorkshire, but in Manchester, London, Cornwall, across the UK. But I think what sets Yorkshire
05:18apart is there's a real passion for this industry here. And I think coming to an event like this
05:22really showcases that. Yeah. And what are you seeing out there at the moment, Julian,
05:27activity-wise? What's going on? I think in terms of activity, there's probably as much
05:34going on as I've ever seen. And I think that probably belies a general lack of confidence.
05:40There seems to be an aura of a lack of confidence, but actually there's an awful lot going on at the
05:44moment. I've been in Leeds for 20 years now, and just looking at things like the annual crane
05:49survey that Deloitte do, activity is as strong as ever. I think there's some really exciting
05:53projects coming online as well. What we're probably seeing is more activity from the
05:59private sector. A lot of the work is private sector-led. Obviously, the public sector and
06:03the council have a huge role to play in facilitating that. But it's great to see the private sector
06:07really taking a lead in terms of regenerating areas and bringing new parts of town back into
06:12life. Yeah, fantastic. Who's on your table tonight? We've got a really good table tonight.
06:17So we've got a good mixture of public and private sector. We've got the co-chairs of
06:20Young Entrepreneurs and Property, Sarah and Jordan joining us. We've got Angela Barnacle
06:25from the council. We've got some delegates from ABP as well, Associated British Ports,
06:32and Charles Johnson from Leeds Bradford Airports, and a couple of representatives from Jasper as well.