STP Learning Event #1: Liveable Neighbourhoods

Conference Lead-In Event #1

Join us for the first in our 2025 learning series. In this event, we are focussing on building more liveable, inclusive and resilient neighbourhoods.

This session brings together place-making leaders and regeneration practitioners to explore how communities across Scotland - and beyond - are putting policy into practice. With a mix of case studies, panel discussion, and audience dialogue, we’ll unpack what it truly means to create a liveable neighbourhood in the context of housing, economy, health, and sustainability.

Core themes we’ll explore:

• Town centre living & its economic impact
• 20-minute neighbourhoods
• Housing to 2040 & the housing emergency
• Sustainable policy in action
• Community wealth building
• The “hidden” benefits of good towns - health, education, cohesion

Framing the Future: 5 Conditions of Success

Across all events in our 2025 series, we’ll focus on five critical enablers:

• Leadership & collaboration
• Holistic planning & placemaking
• Funding & resources
• Local engagement & partnership
• Risk mitigation

Agenda

9:30 – 9:45 Welcome & Context Setting
Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland's Towns Partnership

Kimberley will introduce the event in the wider context of development work happening across Scotland's local authorities, as well as sharing her experience of a recent study visit to Oldham - all strengthened by five key conditions of success.

Show & Tell: Innovative Case Studies in Action

9:45 – 10:00 Revitalising Oldham: Laying the Foundations for Investment and Growth

Alex Vogel, Senior Development Manager, Muse

Alex will update on the housing and place making activity in Oldham. The council’s groundwork undertaken to make Oldham Town Centre more appealing for investment, including enhancements to the public realm, development of the city park, and improvements to active travel routes - laid the foundation for attracting Muse as long-term partners to deliver approximately 2,000 new homes in the heart of Oldham.

10:00 – 10:15 Bringing Life Back to Town Centre Upper Floors
Ross Grant, Senior Project Manager, Aberdeen Inspired

Ross is part of a specialist task force formed to revitalise the upper floors of Union Street, aiming to create a vibrant, liveable neighbourhood in Aberdeen’s city centre. Led by Aberdeen Inspired with support from the City Council, the group brings together planners, architects, and agents to explore new uses—residential, commercial, cultural—for underused space, and to tackle barriers to redevelopment. The initiative is seen as a model for urban regeneration elsewhere.

10:15 – 10:30 Belfast Case Study – HOUSE Programme: Homes on Upper Spaces for Everyone
Cathy Reynolds, Director of City Regeneration & Development, Belfast City Council

Cathy will share early progress on the Belfast HOUSE programme, outlining its aims, current challenges and opportunities—particularly in driving city centre living. She’ll also provide an update on wider work, including the recent appointment of a long-term partner to redevelop surface car parks and key sites for housing-led regeneration.

10:30 – 10:50 Open Audience Discussion

An interactive session to share reflections, explore cross-cutting issues, and connect insights to the five conditions of success and the broader vision for liveable towns.

10:50 – 11:00 Closing Remarks – Kimberley Guthrie

Join the Conversation

Following the presentations, we’ll host an open discussion to surface shared challenges, local insights, and practical next steps for delivering liveable places.

This event is ideal for local authorities, developers, community leaders, housing and regeneration professionals, and anyone committed to the future of our towns.

Register now and be part of the conversation.

We’ll continue this discussion theme at our 11 June Cross Party Group - details here

Privacy

To support networking and help you get the most out of our event, we will provide those coming with a list of the names and organisational affiliation of those attending.

Furthermore, we typically take photographs of proceedings in order to highlight or showcase STP’s activities.

Please let us know if you do not wish to provide consent for the use of your personal data in this way. To see how we use and take care of your information, please see our privacy notice.