Emerging districts: The evolution of Life Sciences real estate

Life sciences in the UK is heavily concentrated in three places: Cambridge, Oxford and London. 

Between 2021 and 2023, £5.8 billion was invested in real estate for this sector – and £4.5 billion was in this “Golden Triangle”. 

These already thriving markets are set to benefit from continuing investment, as the current government has set a target for the UK to become a “global science superpower”, while the opposition has also made life sciences a key priority, pledging to increase R&D by £10 billion a year.

But will the Golden Triangle retain its unassailable dominance as the sector expands, or will new hotspots emerge to challenge it? 

Linesight convened an expert panel to discuss what makes a successful life sciences destination, the role of clusters in meeting the UK’s ambitions, and what tomorrow’s life sciences landscape might look like.

• Giles Heather, Director – UK & Europe, Linesight
• Richard Papworth, Director, HDR
• John Hunt, Senior Adviser & Global Lead – Construction & Technology, Enterprise Ireland
• Tim Fry, Business Leader, Science UKIMEA,Arup
• Peter Gavican, Chief Operating Officer, Eagle Street
• Gareth Roberts, Head of Development – Innovation & Life Science, British Land
• Fatos Peja, Design Principal, HDR
• Liz Hasmon, Editor-in-chief, BE News (CHAIR)
• Balwinder Brar, Senior Technical Services Manager, Overbury
• Priya Shah, Associate Director – Life Sciences, Linesight
• Edmund Vaughan, Operations Director (Design), chapmanbdsp
• Nick Pell, Director, T-A Labs

You can read our takeaways from this roundtable discussion by clicking on 'download report'.