‘Reading’s City Status – is now the Time?’ was the question posed at the Thames Valley Property Forum’s First Tuesday Club meeting, sponsored by Blandy & Blandy, on 9 January.
The event, held at Reading’s Green Park Conference Centre, welcomed 100 attendees from across the property sector, with leading firms and companies including Barton Willmore, Haslams, Handelsbanken, Savills, Turley, Boyer Planning, NatWest, Ridge, Pegasus Group, Bell Cornwell, Vail Williams and Lambert Smith Hampton represented.
Damian Comerford, managing director of Comerford Real Estate, on the panel alongside Blandy & Blandy LLP’s Simon Dimmick and Lichfields' Zahra Waters, argued that Reading should make another bid for status when the next opportunity arises. He credited the business parks in and around Reading as "an international who’s who". Damian added that the town must look outwards and even more internationally and that city status would aid this due to the psychology and perceptions involved.
Simon Dimmick said that Reading has a "vibrant heart" and that the town has unquestionably improved greatly in the last 20 years. Zahra Waters explained that Reading not being a city did not feature in Lichfields’ decision to open new offices in Reading, nor her personal choice to relocate from London.
Blandy & Blandy’s Commercial Property and Planning & Environmental Law teams are highly ranked in the UK’s two leading independent legal directories, Chambers UK Guide and The Legal 500. Blandy & Blandy was named ‘Property Law Firm of the Year’ at the 2017 Thames Valley Property Awards and is ranked among the UK’s top Planning law firms by Planning magazine.
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