Battle and Co Talking Property

Send us Fan Mail In this latest episode of the Battle & Co podcast, Matthew and Alfie spoke to Bart Janaszek - managing director of Digital Trading Creative Ltd. Bart has a strong background in technology and computers, starting with coding at school, studying at Plymouth University, and then working at Digital Trading. Given his expertise in the field, Bart was able to speak at length on how...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, Matthew Battle was accompanied by UKPF's newest hire, Alfie Morse, who has taken over from Alan Bunce as news editor on The Forum and is leading news coverage in all our journals.  Matthew and Alfie spoke to Tom Bridgman, deputy chief executive of place at Oxford City Council, about all things Oxford, notably the cities direction, its potential, and t...

Send us Fan Mail For the latest episode of Battle & Co, our Managing Director Matthew Battle travelled to Leeds for the renowned UKREiiF, speaking to attendees gathered from across the property market about what they think has changed since last year’s edition. With guests spanning from Bidwells and EIT Oxford , all the way to The Oxford Growth Commission , this episode is packed with insight...

Send us Fan Mail After several years of planning and construction, the Oxford North development has rapidly become one of the most talked about and significant real estate developments in the UK. Oxford North’s masterplan will deliver million sq ft of new labs and workspace, surrounded by public parks and amenities, in the city of Oxford's flagship and best-connected innovation district.  Bil...

Send us Fan Mail Oliver Luard, partnerships & investment director for Greencore Homes joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking property podcast with one change - Alan Bunce was replaced by my Oxfordshire colleague Hugh Blaza. Oliver has been involved with various roles throughout his land and planning career for a range of living based companies such as Vistry Homes and McCarthy Sto...

Send us Fan Mail Ryan Harris, regional director for the Western division for The Hill Group joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast. Ryan, who has been 17 years with the housebuilder, described his route through education, where he (briefly) joined the academic world, before opting for more practical hands-on roles at building sites. He joined Lovell Partnerships and b...

Send us Fan Mail Ben Denton is head of strategic growth for L&G with a focus on growing the affordable housing business - both in terms of scale and attracting investment.   He was previously managing director of L&G's affordable housing division, following a long senior career in the housing sector. L&G's Affordable Housing Fund, launched last year, has raised £510 million o...

Send us Fan Mail Dorchester Living chief executive Paul Silver, the driving force behind the remarkable transformation of Upper Heyford Airfield, joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast. The former chartered accountant explains his route into the world of sustainable development and the remarkable transformation of the former Oxfordshire RAF base into Heyford Park, a s...

Send us Fan Mail Turley director Taylor Cherrett joined the Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast to discuss one sector experiencing surging demand for space. Taylor, a director in Turley's South East team, has previously outlined the demand for data centres , which he says is an industry unmatched in recent years for the amount of development space it needs. So we asked him to update u...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Taylor, head of commercial agency for Savills in Cambridge, joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast. Mark, who has worked in the commercial markets in Cambridge for decades, looked at the new demand for offices in the city, driven by both the much-talked about 'flight to quality' and the demand from the tech industry which is fast advanc...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Channer, group managing director of Haslams Estate Agents, joined us for a look through the Berkshire housing market in the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast. Having trained in marketing Dan, who in his career has been a producer for LBC, a management consultant, and spent 10 years in the family business Finders Keepers estate agent in Oxfordshire until its sa...

Send us Fan Mail Industry Leaders interviewed at UKREiiF 2025  Our intrepid reporter Matthew Battle, Managing Director of UK Property Forums, attended this year's UKREiiF and interviewed a selection of key industry figures outside the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor Pavillion for this exclusive podcast. For this podcast, several interviews have been spliced together to give listeners an unde...

Send us Fan Mail Regional evolution   David Bainbridge, a director of planning in the Savills' South Central planning team, joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast.   He provides a snapshot into the various changes proposed for local government across the Golden Triangle.  David can boast a rare mix of experience including more than 20 years in consultancy and sev...

Send us Fan Mail Oxfordshire – The Developers Forum. Interview with Rachel Wood, managing director of Sladen Estates, and Charles Butters, who is strategic property advisor to Oxfordshire County Council and founder & director of Sulgrave Advisors.   Oxfordshire is going through a once in a lifetime series of growth changes. Driven by massive investment across the Golden Triangle (Oxford – Camb...

Send us Fan Mail Hugo Haig is director of Lochailort Investments.  Just as one of his most significant schemes is unveiled, he gave us a preview and offered thoughts on the way forward in the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast.  Old Town is the latest iteration of the redevelopment of the Kennet Centre in Newbury. Lochailort initially proposed Eagle Quarter which ran into oppositio...

Send us Fan Mail Legal trends in the housing market Brian Dowling, residential development partner at law firm Boyes Turner, joined us for the latest Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast.  Based in Reading, Brian works across the Berkshire and South East UK property markets representing developers of all sizes, but in particular, SME housebuilders and sees, first hand, the challenges facing...

Send us Fan Mail Almost exactly a year after Andy Jansons first joined us for the Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast, he’s back – and this time he had some key developments to talk about.  Fresh from his acquisitions of two office parks, Andy, managing director of Jansons Property, explained his options for developing The Boulevard at Bracknell (Dell’s former head offices) and Kingsmead B...

Send us Fan Mail Blenheim Palace is much more than just a stately home these days and we are really pleased to have Roger File, the property managing director and chief operating officer at Blenheim Palace as our speaker on this episode of Battle & Bunce Talking Property.  In 21 years at Blenheim Palace Roger has accumulated a unique knowledge of how the estate has evolved into becoming a worl...

Send us Fan Mail Thames Valley UK: The Prop Market Update Guy Parkes, partner at Vail Williams in Reading, joined the Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast at Apex Reading to go over the office market in the Thames Valley prop market, situated to the west of London and bordered by the M3, M4 and M40 motorways.   Guy, a veteran of the office industry, sees a pattern emerging in which home wor...

Send us Fan Mail Jonathon Clarke, development director for Oxford United FC, joined us for the Battle & Bunce Talking Property podcast to update listeners on the club's proposed new stadium. The man steering the £140 million project talked us through the highs and lows so far and the research the club has carried out to come up with the design for the 16,000-capacity ground along with its...

Send us Fan Mail An overview of the changes planned by the  Labour Government and how they will revolutionise the planning system to create economic growth across the Golden Triangle region - Oxford, Cambridge, Reading and west London.  Urban design director for WWA Studios Johnathan Headland joined us for the first Battle & Bunce podcast since the General Election.  And it was the new Labour...

Send us Fan Mail Planning for Diddly Squat with Dan Lampard When Lichfields director Dan Lampard wrote about the planning issues around Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm for Thames Tap in June 2023, the response was beyond our wildest expectations. Dan, who is senior director and head of Thames Valley, and lives in West Oxfordshire, not far from Diddly Squat, gave a rare perspective on life...

Send us Fan Mail These two great UK Cities have been competing against each other for over 1000 years in some respect whether it be in the provision of education, accumulation of knowledge, or success of their research. And whilst many still associate the Oxford v Cambridge with sporting rivalries such as the annual Boat Race or Rugby Varsity Match, they are now competing in a far bigger league to...

Send us Fan Mail Interview with Alison Foster, programme director for the re-development of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. The podcast explores how a major project could total £1bn+ in construction value and become one of the major projects in Berkshire and possibly the South East if it gets the go-ahead from the Government.  The Battle & Co Talking Property podcast Interviews the pe...

Send us Fan Mail Former Reading FC chief executive Nigel Howe, the man central to finding a buyer for the club, joins the Battle & Bunce podcast for a candid conversation about how it's going .  He also looks back on the other major projects he's been involved with in Reading including the stalled Royal Elm Park scheme and Station Hill. He reveals his hope that the Royal Elm Park sit...