Investor confidence: lessons for UK place leaders
Recurve's founder joined Property Forum's first London investment forum, at RICS, to discuss what moves regional schemes from prospectus to investment.
On 29 September, Recurve founder Sam Markey joined the panel The Future of Cities, Connectivity & Capital at the Real Estate Capital & Investment Decisions Forum, held at RICS at Parliament Square. It was Property Forum's first forum in London, co-organised with RICS, and it brought institutional investors, developers and inward investment teams together for a day on what unlocks capital.
Courtney Fingar, Strategic Advisor for FDI at Property Forum, moderated the panel. Sam joined Richard Dawson, Economic Advisor for Inward Investment at Newcastle City Council; Juliet Gamlin, Inward Investment Manager at Invest in Cardiff; and Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive of Opportunity London. They discussed what it takes to move regional schemes from prospectus to investment.
The room was cautious. In a live poll, 48% of attendees (comprising largely investors, analysts and asset managers) said they were less confident about the UK's prospects than a year ago, and 35% said things felt about the same. Speakers through the day pointed to slow planning, rising costs and political uncertainty as barriers.
Sam argued that the lack of visible and investment-ready pipeline is the critical barrier holding up place-based investment in the UK. He sets out the argument in full in a new Insights essay, The risk premium is the part places can control.
"Place leaders in local and regional government can't set interest rates, but they can control how credible and competent their regions look to investors. That means getting sites ready before taking them to market, telling one shared story across their partners, and building relationships with patient capital beyond the usual markets, including for example Latin America."
Sam Markey, Founder of Recurve
Sam's invitation followed his July article for Real FDI, ‘The investors no one in your region is calling’.
Our thanks go to Courtney Fingar, Irina Gasson and the Property Forum team for organising the event.
From ambition to action
Two pieces of Recurve work turn these ideas into practical support for places.
Local Power, Global Reach is the toolkit we built from insights gathered for the Commission on Devolution and Diplomacy which published its findings in June. The toolkit helps place leaders to organise international partnerships, inward investment and purposeful capital, and it launches this autumn. Join the waitlist to receive a copy on release, or take the Global Partnerships Readiness Check to see where your place stands now.
The UK–LatAm Investment Bridge, developed with Acacias Capital, connects UK places with patient capital from Latin American family offices and private wealth holders. Its founding cohort of pioneer places is forming now.
If you're working to build investor confidence in your place, email hello@recurve.co to start a conversation.
