Like many places, Rochdale was hard hit by the financial crash of 2008. In this podcast, senior reporter Dan Whelan chatted to Neil Eccles, head of innovation at Rochdale Development Agency, and Steve Rumbelow, chief executive of Rochdale Council, about how the council and private sector went about reinventing the town and how it plans to supercharge its growth going forward.

Sir Richard Leese reflects on key moments from the past 25 years in this one-on-one interview with Place North West's deputy editor, Julia Hatmaker.

As we push for sustainable development, more and more attention is being paid to building materials. Stephanie Palmer, head of sustainability at Wienerberger UK joins Place North West to talk about brick's green credentials as well as what the company is doing to mitigate its carbon footprint.

To find out more, visit wienerberger.co.uk

Do heritage properties help or hinder efforts to revitalise a community? In the latest Place North West podcast, we zoom in on Rochdale to see how history is shaping the future.

Rochdale Development Agency heritage director Emma Birkett and Donald Insall Associates director Simon Malam share how they’re tackling the challenges of heritage-led regeneration and the rewards such projects bring.

Visit investinrochdale.co.uk to find out more.

The UK’s electrical grid infrastructure is in dire need of an dire upgrade if the country is going to meet its renewable energy goals by 2035, says Pegasus Group in the latest Place North West podcast episode.

Building more wind and solar farms can only go so far when it comes to transforming the nation’s energy system. Without the proper infrastructure in place, we cannot truly maximise the potential of clean energy. So how bad is the issue?

We recruited experts from Pegasus Group, senior director Simon Tarr and senior acquisition surveyor Ben Thompson, to find out.

Visit pegasusgroup.co.uk

On this episode of Place North West’s COP26 podcast series, HBD and Cundall discuss why some developers are taking it upon themselves to get ahead of the curve in terms of sustainability, while government legislation on the issue lags behind.

Lee Treanor, director at HDB, and Paul Kenyon, partner at multi-disciplinary practice Cundall, also explore how the term ‘net zero’ is being used and misused and what more can be done to help people tell fact from fiction when claims about a building’s carbon credentials are made.

Could a single, formalised framework like Nabers provide the development community a clearer, more defined path towards net zero? Will brown discounts and green premiums become a reality in the future as many predict?

To find out more, visit hbd.co.uk

Healthcare developer Assura delves into the challenges it faces in creating sustainable medical facilities, and how it's overcoming them, in this episode of our COP26 podcast series.

By their nature, healthcare properties are energy-hungry with their need to support specialist equipment at all times. So how can we construct new facilities in a way that helps the UK meet its net zero carbon goals?

We recruited Assura chief executive officer Jonathan Murphy and senior development manager Ashley Seymour to share what they’re doing to craft sustainable buildings.

To find out more, visit assuraplc.com

As part of the COP26 podcast series, we've talked about retrofitting quite a lot - from a general overview of the issue to best practices. But what's it like on the ground level? ForHousing has embarked on an assertive course of action to retrofit its properties, with all its properties set to be EPC band C by 2030. It's also working with the University of Southampton to research the best ways to retrofit going forward. With that in mind, we recruited ForHousing group chief executive Colette McKune to share the lessons learned from putting retrofitting best practices into action.

To find out more, visit forhousing.co.uk

Electric vehicles are on the rise as the UK pushes for net zero, which means more and more EV charging stations are needed. But before you add an EV charging unit to your scheme you need to answer two very important questions:

Pegasus executive director and environmental planner Andrew Cook delves into each question to propose solutions that will help your scheme maximise its sustainability credentials.

To find out more, visit pegasusgroup.co.uk

When it comes to minimising carbon footprints, companies should keep things simple and take steps to measure, monitor, and manage energy consumption before considering investing heavily in largely untested technologies, according to energy provider Unify.

Sarah Bateman, chief executive of Unify Energy, explains why spending money on solar panels, so-called green energy and EV charging points might not be the wisest thing for businesses looking to reduce their environmental impact to do right now.

To find out more, email: [email protected]