Breakfast Club Briefings launched by Emily Thornberry MP
The first of our new networking series, Breakfast Club Briefings, was launched last week (11 May 2022) by the Rt Hon Emily Thornberry MP.
Our directors, Oli Lowrie and Jon Ackroyd welcomed Ms Thornberry and invited guests to the Corinthia London for a panel discussion on 'Greening the Urban Landscape'.
Oli said: “We’ve set up Breakfast Club Briefings to bring together policymakers and practitioners for in-depth conversation on the biggest challenges facing urban development. We believe it’s important to provide opportunities for private and public sector organisations to meet, share knowledge and develop realistic solutions for improving our cities, homes, workplaces and communities.”
To kickstart the series, Emily Thornberry, who is currently Shadow Attorney General and MP for Islington South and Finsbury, spoke passionately about the shortage of green spaces in her local borough– there is just 13% green space, meaning 3.3m² per person, and the impact that has on the quality of life, health and wellbeing of her constituents.
She applauded Ackroyd Lowrie “for assembling such a wealth of knowledge and experience to talk about the difficulties we face as a society in trying not just to preserve green spaces in our cities, but to enhance and expand them for the benefit of urban communities.”
Ms Thornberry also praised the concept behind Ackroyd Lowrie's Breakfast Club Briefings series, adding: "I think we would all agree that we desperately need more of this kind of dialogue amongst experts and policymakers about the shared challenges we all face and the potential solutions to them right across the spectrum of policy issues."
Present at the inaugural Breakfast Club Briefings event were representatives from local authorities, developers, regeneration specialists, real estate agents, housebuilders and consultants.
Oli added: "Our biggest ambition at Ackroyd Lowrie is to build the cities of future and at the heart of this commitment is sustainable design and placemaking. It was therefore entirely appropriate for the inaugural Breakfast Club Briefings event to focus on the importance of green spaces in urban communities.
“Emily’s opening remarks outlined some stark statistics about the lack of green space in her constituency, and how the pandemic has forced us to strongly re-prioritise this. A spirited discussion followed, covering such topics as achieving net zero in London, strengthening communication channels between Parliament and practitioners, and striking the right balance between the provision of green space and the need for new homes.”
The Breakfast Club Briefings series will take place on alternate months and future topics will include radical retrofit, sustainable masterplanning, and the levelling up agenda.
