UKREiiF | Focus on Sheffield

Place Yorkshire caught up with Cllr Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council, to discuss the city’s main priorities and what it is showcasing at this year’s event.

What is Sheffield focusing on at UKREiiF? 

We will be showcasing the fact that we’ve now got a 10-year growth plan, which is really building on the great economic strengths that we have in the city as a centre of excellence for advanced manufacturing, health technology, culture and creative industries, and for net zero innovation.

We’ll be showcasing our plans for 38,000 new homes, including some major brownfield regeneration schemes, where we are looking to create new city centre neighbourhoods as part of our really strong partnership with Homes England, and we’ll be showcasing the fact that this city is global, it’s green, it’s growing, and it’s got a clear, unified political leadership behind a growth agenda. We know that for residents in our city, the opportunities that we want them to have, to fulfil their talent, comes from having economic growth in our city.

The growth plan forms the foundation document for a lot of our plans, whether that’s our plans to expand our district heating network, our plans to expand the Sheffield tram network, our plans for 38,000 new homes, our plans to invest in culture and creativity and put innovation at the heart of our city centre: the growth plan is there to give confidence to our partners – whether that be government at a national or regional level, partners in the private sector, but also the communities of Sheffield, that the city has got a clear plan, backed by all three parties in the council administration, to give confidence.

We know where we’re heading, and developers are partners can work with us to help realise their ambitions, because we know that our role as city council is to be the convener of this place that we know and love called Sheffield. That doesn’t mean that we do everything, but we can help to create the conditions that allow other people to be successful, whether that’s through the work of our planning team, to regeneration investment, that then allows the companies and developers to work with us. So, we are doing a lot of work to lay the foundations for a decade of growth and prosperity in the city. 
Brilliant.

What trends are prominent at UKREiiF this year, what are people talking about?

I think what we’ll all be talking about is the way in which Sheffield has now got a record of delivery of major regeneration schemes, as you’ve seen with the Heart of the City scheme, which has a transformed the city centre. 
That was a scheme that was developed by the council, delivered on time by the council, and in budget. It’s now 80% let, and we’re seeing really strong commercial interest in the office schemes there, the commercial retail schemes, the food and beverage offer, and the housing offer.

We know it gives confidence to partners that Sheffield can deliver on these schemes and so we’ll be showcasing some more of the opportunities that will come forward, such as our plans to develop two new city centre neighbourhoods around the station and at Morefoot, which together will bring forward 900 at homes. These are major opportunities for partners to work with the city council to help shape the wider neighbourhood areas.

Part of the growth plan is obviously the short-list of Green Belt sites that came out recently, some of which will be developed on. Do you have any timelines for when that decision will be made, and have you received much feedback? 

We are proposing to release a limited number of Green Belt sites as part of our Local Plan and this is part of our plans to meet the need of the growing city and to build 38,000 new homes across the city in the next 15 years. This plan is principally a brownfield-first Local Plan, and nearly 20,000 of the homes will be in and around the city centre.

The number of Green Belt sites that are being proposed for release is relatively small; just 3.6% of Sheffield’s Green Belt would be released.  and we will now be inviting the residents of the city to have their say during a public consultation that will take place from the 29 May through to 11 July. The independent planning inspector will then take those views into account, as they conclude the examination of Sheffield’s Local Plan in the autumn.

We’ll adopt the local plan in 2026, so that we have a settled development framework for the city so that our residents and partners in business and in the housing and construction sector know which sites have been allocated for housing and for employment land. Then we’ll be in a position to provide that certainty to everyone in the city about where we think development should be sustainably located.

Devolution seems to have been a success – how much impact has it had on development in Sheffield? 


We worked very closely with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and Mayor Oliver Coppard, working hand in glove with the city council and the Comined Authority, talking to central government about our plans for specific regeneration sites. The Mayoral Combined Authority has been able to put in some investments to help to bring those sites forward, such as the plans to breathe new life into Neepsend, where Capital & Centric will be developing a big scheme at Canon Brewery – the CA was able to support that scheme with some funding.

The fact that more powers of economic development have been devolved to the region means that Sheffield and South Yorkshire are able to speak with a louder voice, and a single voice, to our partners in industry and in government about the clear plans that we’ve got to develop our city and our region.