UKREiiF 2027 Introduces Heritage, Culture and Creative Industries Day with PJ Livesey as Lead Partner
Photo by Paul Rigel - Unsplash
UKREiiF has unveiled a dedicated Heritage, Culture and Creative Industries Day for its 2027 event, scheduled to take place from 18 to 20 May at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. This new programme stream aims to establish a national forum centred on heritage-led regeneration, cultural investment, and the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, highlighting the creative industries’ role in fostering economic growth across the UK.
The initiative will bring together leaders from both public and private sectors to explore how heritage assets, cultural institutions, and creative organisations contribute to place-making, tourism, investment attraction, job creation, and sustained economic development. As regeneration projects expand across cities, towns, and regions, historic buildings and cultural venues are increasingly pivotal in creating vibrant and sustainable communities.
Heritage-led regeneration has emerged as a significant growth driver nationwide, unlocking investment opportunities, supporting local economies, and preserving assets of national importance for future generations. The launch of this dedicated day has garnered strong support within the sector, reflecting a growing acknowledgement of heritage and culture’s vital role in successful regeneration efforts.
Leading the initiative as headline partner is PJ Livesey, a prominent heritage-led property developer known for restoring and regenerating historic buildings and estates throughout the UK. Collaborating with UKREiiF, PJ Livesey will help shape a comprehensive programme featuring discussions, roundtables, and networking opportunities focused on leveraging historic assets to promote sustainable regeneration and economic growth.
Further expertise will be provided by Donald Insall Associates, which will host a roundtable and panel discussion to examine the challenges, opportunities, and long-term value associated with heritage-led development. The event is expected to attract participation from leading organisations across heritage, cultural, and built environment sectors, including the National Trust, English Heritage, Factory International, Opera North, Houses of Parliament, Blenheim Palace, Museums Association, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Shakespeare’s Globe, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Household, the V&A, York Minster, Royal Ballet & Opera, National Football Museum, Baltic, Lowry, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Heritage Network.
Georgina Lynch, Managing Director at PJ Livesey Group, commented: “Historic buildings are too often seen as a constraint, when with the right heritage expertise, delivery experience and partnerships they can be part of the solution to the UK’s housing and regeneration challenge. For us, this isn’t about choosing between heritage and housing, it’s about doing both better. We have spent nearly five decades bringing complex historic assets back into use, creating new homes and communities while protecting the character that makes these places special.”
She added: “UKREiiF gives us a valuable opportunity to connect the people who can unlock more of these projects, investors, developers, public bodies and heritage organisations, and move the conversation from ambition to delivery, before delay becomes decay.”
UKREiiF intends to facilitate meaningful discussions among government representatives, local authorities, investors, developers, cultural organisations, and heritage bodies. The focus will be on investment strategies, funding models, heritage skills development, and innovative methods for preserving and repurposing historic buildings. The programme will also explore how heritage and culture can continue to generate measurable economic and social benefits through regeneration, while ensuring historic assets remain financially sustainable, environmentally resilient, and accessible to future generations.
Heritage, Culture and Creative Industries Day will feature a series of breakfast and lunch networking events, panel discussions, and expert-led roundtable sessions. Delegates will have the chance to engage with organisations involved in heritage conservation, cultural development, placemaking, regeneration, infrastructure investment, sustainable development, and the creative industries.
Mina Saeed, Content and Programme Manager at UKREiiF, said: “It’s fantastic to launch UKREiiF’s first-ever Heritage, Culture and Creative Industries Day. We have always been committed to developing a dynamic programme that reflects every aspect of the built environment, and with heritage, culture and the creative industries playing an increasingly important role in shaping the sector’s future, it is only right that we provide a dedicated platform for these discussions.”
She continued: “This new focus will create opportunities for collaboration, knowledge-sharing and innovation, bringing together experts, organisations and stakeholders to champion the value of heritage, culture and creativity across the built environment. I look forward to welcoming PJ Livesey, alongside all the attendees and supporters who have already shown such strong interest in UKREiiF 2027.”
Established in 2022, UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum) is the country’s largest built environment event, attracting over 17,000 delegates annually from government, investors, developers, local authorities, occupiers, and other sector participants. The forum has been instrumental in catalysing more than £4 billion of investment and projects currently underway or planned, alongside generating approximately £75 million in economic benefits for the Leeds economy.
