Urban developers who want to win the urban regeneration projects of the future will need to address new technologies such as broadband capability, delegates to a presentation on the implications of intelligent communities for commercial real estate heard at The Property Forum.
In a joint talk with Richard Spray, group property director of Blue Circle Industries, Charlie Hughes, managing director of Miller Hughes Associates said if developers were to win the projects of the future they would need to get 'much smarter.'

Hughes pointed to the recent win by Miller Developments of a competition to develop a major site in the north of England. 'Miller got the deal because it had a visionary concept of how they would develop IT and broadband,' he said. 'The relevance of this to developers is that they just won't get projects without it.'

He urged technology companies to start the debate in the UK on future requirements. 'Everywhere else they are talking about this, but in Britain IT companies are not leading the debate.

BT has recently developed a scheme called BT Community Conscious, which aims to bring hardware and software to communities. 'They have realised that an intelligent community can only work if all are connected,' said Hughes.