The future's bright…the future's Derby

A poll of attendees at the Derby Property Zoommit showed that 81% felt optimistic about the future of Derby.

After hearing from Chief Executive of Bondholder Derby City Council, Paul Simpson talk about plans for the city centre and fellow Bondholder developers Urban Sister and St James’ Securities talking about the investment opportunity they saw in Derby, the vast majority taking the poll confirmed their ‘glass half-full’ stance.

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Asked when they thought things would return to business as normal, 46% of attendees were confident that they would see this by next year. Speaker and retail guru Bill Grimsey, however, applauded the 34% who said things would never return to normal, saying “I hope things don’t return to normal..during the noughties we have been gradually moving to a culture of digital technologies, and Covid has accelerated this….we need to build back better, build back different.”

Speaking about the poll, Managing Director of Marketing Derby, John Forkin said: “The answers to the questions we posed to the attendees gave a useful insight into what customers want from the city centre in the future. The challenges we face are multi-faceted and we are not shrinking from them in Derby.”

He continued: “Marketing Derby has undertaken a number of focus groups and a survey of 400 people in recent weeks to feed a customer voice into the work of the city centre workstream of the Derby Economic Recovery Task Force, and we are very grateful to our Bondholders and followers on our media platforms for taking time out to give their views on how they use the city centre currently and how they wish to use it in the future.

“The results of one of the poll questions at the event today showed that 64% of the audience understands that in order for Derby city centre to be vibrant it needs more attractions, a better experience, and a greater number of people living and working in the city centre. I’m delighted that this backs up the thinking of the city centre workstream.”