29/06/2026
News
There’s a lot of high octane national politics going on this summer but, when it comes to dealing with the public sector, Will Wall points out that in the direct experience of the Lincoln office, business isn’t ‘Big P Political’ in working for and with publicly accountable organisations on their deliverables.
The newest Member of Parliament in England and, at the time of writing, the frontrunner to be the next Prime Minister of the UK is a big fan of devolution. During his time as a turbo-charged Mayor of Greater Manchester he is credited with creating ‘Manchesterism’.
Setting aside the hype, ‘Manchesterism’ has been more than a vibe.
It’s widely acknowledged as serious model for devolution in being business-friendly and private capital & investment-friendly in order to stimulate and deliver economic growth at a regional level that not only benefits the local populace but, in turn, feeds up to the national scene.
In Lincolnshire, we’re almost 18 months in to having our own devolved authority and mayoralty. The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA) gained statutory powers in February 2025 under a Mayor who was directly elected the following May.
Whether or not the GLCCA, our Mayor and business and investors here will create a similar model of devolution success coined as ‘Lincolnshireism’ is all to play for.
With a sparsely populated county of over 1.1 million residents distributed across 2,687 square miles from the East Coast to the agricultural and rural hinterlands - giving a population density of circa 370 people per square mile - we acknowledge we are far from the metropolitan, urban-centric character of Greater Manchester.
However, in working in partnership with Lincolnshire County Council, North Lincolnshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Council, the GLCCA is tasked with devolved responsibilities for transport and local infrastructure, housing & regeneration, adult education and local skills training.
To have one single, strategic delivery vehicle with statutory powers and access to the levers of power and funding pots of Whitehall is highly desirable for those development interests and investors - not to mention their advisors.
This is a matter on which we commented in 2024 when it became clear the newly-elected government of that year had set out a roadmap for the roll-out of devolution across the English regions.
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A bottom-up collaborative approach as opposed to top-down prescriptive imposition seems to be the model for devolutionary success.
It’s a model to which we subscribe in working with, and for, Lincolnshire-based public bodies in partnership to deliver commercially successful projects in many locations now falling within, but not exclusively, the Combined Authority’s reach across the county.
As we’ve argued before, Lincolnshire is uniquely placed in the UK, connecting the Humber freeports with the heart of the Midlands industrial engines and in occupying an historic and modern position for enhancing the nation’s defence capabilities.
Now in Lincolnshire, with a strategic authority in the GLCCA, we are marching to the same devolution beat as other key strategic growth areas of the country and, thereby, are in lockstep with the Prime Minister-in-waiting.
Highlights for us working in partnership with the public sector have included:
- Advising City of Lincoln Council on Charterholme - an urban expansion - providing strategic development consultancy services for 3,200 new homes, a neighbourhood centre, a business park and transport infrastructure to alleviate congestion.
- Appointment by East Lindsey District Council as the property agent for the local-authority led seafront redevelopment scheme at Sutton-on-Sea, Mablethorpe.
- Property agent on a number of key retail and food & beverage opportunities within the wholesale regeneration of Lincoln’s historic city centre known as the Cornhill Quarter. Led by the Lincolnshire Co-operative, the £70 million scheme was supported by City of Lincoln Council, Historic England, The National Heritage Lottery Fund and backed with £5.9 million from the Town Deal programme.
- The contract for the management of leased offices and industrial & business units on a number of business schemes within North Kesteven District Council’s commercial property portfolio including Discovery Court & Blackwood Court in North Hykheham and, among others, the high profile Sleaford Moor Enterprise Park – a strategic employment site on which BTG Eddisons also acts as the commercial letting agent on plots totalling over 37 acres.
- Project manager for the regeneration project in Lincoln’s historic city centre of a former hotel in becoming the University of Lincoln’s new Barbican Creative Hub - a project that saw £2 million in capital funding for the renovation from public and third sector authorities as well as capital investment from a private sector client behind the award winning scheme.
- Project management support for the delivery of a new cinema complex in Gainsborough’s historic market square and a new pedestrian link connecting the Square to a nearby retail and leisure complex, helping strengthen the town centre’s overall connectivity as an anchor property part of a multi-million pound development initiative by West Lindsey District Council to regenerate the town centre and on which we acted for Savoy Cinemas Ltd.
- Cost consultant and QS in the delivery of the award winning Air and Space Institute for Lincoln College - a £15.4 million campus that is an international centre of excellence in providing technology-led learning in Partnership with the RAF and air & space industry commercial operators.
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