Business Voice gets back to work

The Society’s business network, Business Voice, has emerged from Covid and held its first business event since the pandemic on 12^th October. Our guests were Joanne Bartholomew, Kirklees Director of Development and her colleagues, who briefed local business leaders on the council’s ambitious plans for investment in Huddersfield Town Centre.

Over the next few years, Huddersfield is likely to see significant change as the council is determined to make the town centre a place where people will want to work, shop and spend their leisure. We can already see the beginnings of these changes with the demolition of the market car park, the renewal of the old Co-op building on New St, and scaffolding up around the George Hotel and Estate Buildings.

Large investment will be required – Joanne thought over £200m – but it won’t just be about buildings. Cultural attraction will be central to bringing people back into the centre, and so once again we see why business and culture need to support each other.

The dialogue with local business on every part of the town centre plans – from transport to retail, housing to culture – will be something that Business Voice is sure to return to again and again over the foreseeable future.