New managing director of Barnack Estates looks for wider vision for Peterborough

Greater focus is needed on development outside Peterborough city centre to meet the needs of graduates from ARU Peterborough, the boss of a city development company has said.

Vanessa Pomeroy (35) managing director of Barnack Estates, based in Barnack House, Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, said: “There is a big focus on regeneration in the city centre but not so much a focus on those outer areas and the bits that add on.

“The university is fantastic and we have all these people coming out but actually where are they going once they have graduated? “You need those developments.

“People tend to want to work in Cambridge and London and in those lovely buildings - graduates care about that - so we need to provide that and we need to start now for that to come out the end of the pipeline in three years. It takes that long to build.

“It’s that forward thinking. You can’t solve everything at once. It may be right to focus on the city centre to start with but there has always got to be that vision.

“The university has a great opportunity to work with developers to bring forward what’s needed.

”I think there is opportunity there but it is about bringing all these elements together to get the outcome that needs to happen.”

Vanessa’s comments come as ARU Peterborough, which began taking in students just two years ago, celebrates the opening of its third phase, The Lab, at its campus in Bishop’s Road, which will provide a raft of new work-related courses for students from the New Year.

Appointed as managing director of Barnack Estates just five months ago, Vanessa, a mum of two, said: “It was an opportunity you just don’t pass up.

"I joined Barnack as a part-time quantity surveyor.

"In all honesty, I never aspired to be a managing director.

"And it’s not something I thought I would ever get the opportunity to do, especially in this industry and having a family and not wanting to work full time hours.”

Vanessa, who has been with Barnack Estates for five years, said: “But I really enjoy development and no two days are the same.

"I’m never in my comfort zone although I think all managing directors would find that."

Barnack Estates was founded about 27 years ago by current chairman Rob Facer and has moved premises five times as it has expanded. It currently employs 13 staff.

Over the last decade, the company has built more than two million square feet of warehousing in Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

With recent changes of political leadership locally and nationally, Vanessa said that developers were looking for stability and certainty.

She said: “Once that happens the viewings pick up, people become more confident and businesses can plan properly.

"From council planning departments what’s most important is that once we get information in it is dealt with quickly.

"It is hard to plan if a condition is expected to be discharged in eight weeks and we get the workforce and funding ready and then it is not discharged for three months.”

Peterborough City Council and neighbouring Huntingdon District Council have both recently issued a ‘call for sites’ as they draw up new Local Plans that will dictate where development can take place.

Vanessa said: “We have not put any sites forward ourselves.

She said: “The future for the business is looking bright.

"We have more land than we have ever had but we are also growing the main contractor side, which is building for other people.””

“We have the flexibility to build at the right time and we have a really good team – we just need the right economy to build.”