MEDIA RELEASE

7th June 2024

This week, Our CEO Patrick Elias, Head of Planning Chris Ferreira and our new Advisor Jacqueline Vozzo joined The Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue’s 2024 East London Study Tour for an insider’s perspective of the mega-projects in East London from the local policy makers, regulators, planners, developers, academics and community leaders. 

The delegates kicked off the tour with a visit to Battersea Power Station, which has been transformed into a bustling shopping and leisure precinct, with its Head of Planning & Public Affairs, Gordon Adams. 

They heard from Rt Honourable Stephen Timms, Member of Parliament for East Ham, Dave Hill, Trustee at the London Society, and John Burton OBE, former Head of Westfield UK to talk more about East London’s urban regeneration journey, alongside Dialogue Chairman Christopher Brown AM and StratWest CEO, Faith Halliday. 

The tour also included a visit to Canada Water, one of the largest mixed-use regeneration projects in London, and learned more about its governance and strategic planning with British Land’s Joint Head of Canada Water & Head of Residential, Emma Cariaga, and Joint Head of Canada Water Development, Roger Madelin CBE. 

One day one the delegates attended a working lunch at the UK House of Lords, where they head from Lord Steve Bassam, Baron Bassam of Brighton, Business in the Community (BITC) Place Director, and Baroness Jo Valentine, Crossbench Member, House of Lords, on the role of business in the community. 

Day two of the tour focused on transport, innovation and community legacy through the arts and sports, starting with a visual tour of the QEII Olympic Park, with Lyn Garner, Chief Executive of the LLDC, before moving onto London Stadium and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.  

Later that evening the delegates attended a formal reception at Australia House, with Dan Labbad, CEO, Crown Estate, Professor Andrew McNaughton, Chairman, Network Rail (High Speed) Limited, and Hon. Stephen Smith, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, who discussed attracting inward investment for regional infrastructure. 

The Study Tour continues this week. 

Thank you to The Western Sydney Dialogue. The Dialogue is a not-for-profit, think-tank, leading a national conversation about Greater Western Sydney. They facilitate interactions between key opinion leaders, across industry, government, academia and the community, to inform public policy debate and to advance a regional agenda through research, analysis, advocacy and events. Their last London Study Tour was held in 2019.