Regeneration remains one of the defining ambitions shaping UK towns and cities but increasingly, residents are asking harder questions about who that change is really for.
Across the country, councils, developers and investors are pouring billions into new housing, infrastructure, commercial districts and city-centre transformation projects against the backdrop of an escalating housing crisis, mounting pressure on local authorities and growing political volatility.
But while cranes might continue to dominate skylines, public belief in regeneration itself often feels far less certain than it once did.
That tension sat at the heart of a major roundtable hosted by Prolific North and Cast Can during UKREiiF in Leeds, where regeneration leaders, councils, developers and placemaking specialists repeatedly returned to the same issue.
In the second part of our Focus Week looking at brand, placemaking and investment in the UK housing, we look at how the challenge facing regeneration in 2026 is as much about attracting investment as it is about convincing people that change is happening with them rather than around them.
The discussion formed part of The Great Housing Development Summit, a three-day programme hosted by The Housing & Development Network (H&DN), The National Sales Group (NSG) and Cast Can, and brought together local authorities, housing organisations, planners, developers and marketers from across the UK
What emerged was a sense that many residents no longer automatically buy into regeneration narratives that fail to visibly improve everyday life.
During the discussion, Sunderland emerged as one example of the growing disconnect between regeneration messaging and public sentiment following the city’s political shift towards Reform UK in recent local elections.
Nick Lieb, COO at Share to Buy, questioned whether regeneration conversations are really landing beyond city-centre investment announcements and flagship developments.
“You look under all of the stories and a lot of the comments are about when’s the money being invested in areas outside of the city centre,” he said.
That sparked a wider conversation around whether parts of the UK’s regeneration model have become too focused on inward investment, skyline transformation and economic messaging while struggling to demonstrate tangible benefits for existing communities.
Several participants acknowledged that residents increasingly expect visible outcomes rather than broad promises about future growth.
They want jobs, affordable homes, safer streets, better public spaces and opportunities for younger people. Crucially, too, they want places people can actually afford to stay in. They don’t care about another master plan.
That challenge feels particularly acute in places trying to rebuild public trust after political or financial instability.
Slough Borough Council discussed the difficulties of restoring confidence with residents following the authority’s highly publicised financial problems while simultaneously trying to push forward major regeneration and inward investment plans.
For Neetal Rajput, head of development management and planning enforcement at Slough Borough Council, trust now sits at the centre of the wider conversation.
“Trust takes time to build and trust can also be broken in seconds,” she said.
That pressure is also changing how councils and developers think about consultation and community engagement too.
One of the themes emerging from the roundtable was the idea that communities are still too often brought into regeneration conversations after major decisions have already been made.
James Hamer, managing director at Cast Can, argued that residents need to be involved far earlier and much more meaningfully in shaping developments.
“We need to involve communities in the decision making and the journey,” he said.
The discussion referenced work by consultation specialist Shared Voice, alongside international examples including Vienna’s social housing model, where extensive consultation and long-term community infrastructure have helped create neighbourhoods designed around how people actually live rather than simply maximising density or short-term viability.
That contrast surfaced repeatedly throughout the conversation.
Because while regeneration discussions often revolve around investment figures, planning frameworks and economic growth, residents actually experience regeneration through a far more personal lens.
Can they afford to live there? Do they feel represented in the future being imagined for the place? Will regeneration improve everyday life or simply reshape the skyline?
That gap between regeneration language and lived experience is creating mounting political pressure for councils.
Kate Bull, director of economy and skills at Liverpool City Council, acknowledged the increasing scrutiny local authorities face when trying to justify long-term regeneration strategies to residents dealing with immediate pressures around housing, affordability and public services.
Daniel Ray, director of planning services and chief planning officer at Slough Borough Council, also acknowledged that public confidence ultimately depends on visible delivery rather than messaging alone.
“It doesn’t matter what we say until it starts to be delivered,” he said.
That may become one of the defining regeneration challenges of the next decade. Less about whether towns and cities can attract investment but whether they can rebuild belief.
Tomorrow, Prolific North and Cast Can examine how councils, developers and regeneration leaders are increasingly borrowing techniques from consumer branding and marketing as cities compete harder than ever for investment, talent and attention.
CASE STUDY: Inside the campaign to rebuild Slough’s image and attract global investment
Slough doesn’t struggle for strategic importance.
The Berkshire town sits next to Heathrow, has one of the highest concentrations of data centres anywhere in the world outside Virginia in the US, and plays a critical role in the UK’s digital and logistics infrastructure.
But for years, many of those strengths have existed beneath a layer of negative perception and public scepticism around the town’s future direction.
Now, Slough Borough Council is reshaping that narrative through a major inward investment and placemaking push centred around a new platform and identity, Slough Is Now.
The project, delivered with Cast Can, formed part of wider discussions during Prolific North’s regeneration and placemaking roundtable at UKREiiF, where questions around perception, trust and community belief repeatedly surfaced throughout the conversation.
The work began with a film designed to reposition Slough at UKREiiF 2025 and introduce the town to investors and stakeholders in a more ambitious and outward-facing way.
From there, the brief expanded into a wider inward investment and placemaking strategy including branding, messaging, digital infrastructure, events and content.
The result was Slough Is Now, a platform designed to reposition the town as a modern investment destination while attempting to reconnect the place with a stronger sense of identity and momentum.
Cast Can managing director James Hamer said the aim was to create something that could operate beyond traditional inward investment marketing.
“This was about creating something instantly recognisable, contemporary and scalable, with the flexibility to grow over time,” he said.
The project included a new inward investment brand identity, messaging framework, website build, film production, event branding and wider marketing support, with future plans including podcasting, social media management, investor engagement activity and partnerships including Slough Town FC.
At the heart of the strategy sits a challenge facing many Northern towns and cities. How do you reshape external perceptions of a place while also rebuilding confidence internally among residents, businesses and stakeholders?
That question surfaced repeatedly during the roundtable discussion, where Slough Borough Council acknowledged the difficulties of rebuilding public trust following the authority’s well-publicised financial issues while simultaneously trying to push forward major regeneration and investment plans.
Daniel Ray, director of planning services and chief planning officer at Slough Borough Council, argued during the discussion that many of Slough’s strengths simply remain poorly understood externally.
“Every financial transaction works its way through Slough at some point,” he said. “But people don’t necessarily know that.”
The council has increasingly focused on building a stronger narrative around those hidden strengths, alongside Slough’s transport connectivity, Heathrow links and regeneration opportunities.
The wider placemaking strategy also draws heavily on local identity and overlooked historical details, from the town’s links to the Herschel family and astronomy through to the invention of the zebra crossing and early fingerprinting development.
For Lee Grasby, creative director at Cast Can, those local stories matter because inward investment branding increasingly relies on authenticity.
“The message has got to be believable,” he said during the roundtable. “You can’t over-promise.”
That challenge is becoming increasingly important as towns and cities compete harder for investment, talent and political confidence while public trust around regeneration remains fragile.
Although still in its early stages, Slough Is Now has already moved beyond a traditional inward investment campaign and begun acting as a platform for convening influential stakeholders around the town’s future growth ambitions.
One of the first major examples came at UKREiiF 2026, where the brand was used to bring together senior leaders from Slough Borough Council, the London Borough of Hillingdon, the London Borough of Hounslow, Heathrow Airport and Opportunity London for a discussion on the future of the Heathrow Corridor.
Hosted as part of the Great Housing Development Summit, the session attracted more than 80 attendees and marked the first time all three local authorities surrounding Heathrow had appeared together on the same platform alongside the airport to discuss growth, connectivity, housing delivery and investment opportunities across the corridor.
Speakers including Pat Hayes, Executive Director of Regeneration, Housing and Environment at Slough Borough Council; Julia Johnson, Director of Planning and Sustainable Growth at Hillingdon Council; Peter O’Brien, Executive Director of Placemaking and Growth at Hounslow Council; Nigel Milton, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at Heathrow Airport; and Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive of Opportunity London, explored how coordinated planning, infrastructure investment and public-private collaboration could help unlock one of the UK’s most strategically significant growth corridors.
For Cast Can, the event demonstrated how placemaking brands can extend beyond marketing and communications to create the conditions for meaningful partnership-building, investor engagement and long-term delivery.
You can view the Slough Is Now Case Study on Cast Can’s website here: https://www.castcan.co.uk/slough-is-now
