Speeches by Smith.

“I suspected the answer was going to be no.”

“I just want to dig into that a little bit. It works in Scotland, clearly, but on a UK level, we are entering even more than ever into an era of devolution. You have talked about the mayoral authorities, which are all very ambitious for their regions and will be competitive against each other. I am from Manchester and A…”

“Sport is a good example of where you have the national co-ordinating body. Who else needs to be involved in developing the UK major events strategy?”

“I am trying to understand how you bring these two things together. All three of you have talked about the ideas coming up from the bottom, but you have also said you need co-ordination from the top. In practical terms, how does that work? You need some sort of governmental body to try to bring all these people together…”

“In terms of that vision, should it be the Government coming in? For example, many years ago in Manchester, we thought, “We need to revitalise east Manchester.” The Commonwealth games was the start of that, and it has been massively successful. That was part of a wider regeneration vision. Should the Government come in …”

“I just want to dig into that a little bit. It works in Scotland, clearly, but on a UK level, we are entering even more than ever into an era of devolution. You have talked about the mayoral authorities, which are all very ambitious for their regions and will be competitive against each other. I am from Manchester and A…”

“I suspected the answer was going to be no.”

“On the wider benefits that you talked about, in your written evidence you have mentioned the spillover benefits, things like tourism, regeneration, volunteering, skills and cultural identity. They are quite hard to quantify, aren’t they? To make a case for sustained public investment you need to try to do that, so how …”

“What about more local partnerships? How can Historic England convene or encourage partnerships with local authorities and social investors to capture those benefits?”

“Are there any lessons from abroad that we can take? Is anybody else doing it?”

“On the wider benefits that you talked about, in your written evidence you have mentioned the spillover benefits, things like tourism, regeneration, volunteering, skills and cultural identity. They are quite hard to quantify, aren’t they? To make a case for sustained public investment you need to try to do that, so how …”

“Is there an opportunity for more oversight and co-ordination? Mark?”

“Do you think that convening function is enough? Do you think that swapping notes is enough or do you think that there should be more oversight and control? I am getting the impression that MOD understandably is sort of managing its estate and all the challenges that comes with that but as a kind of separate entity from…”

“Andy and Richard, you both talked about your challenge in maintaining heritage assets while you have to maintain operational requirements, particularly security but other kinds of operational requirements as well. Would you like to add anything on that? That leads to my second question, which is about collaboration. Hi…”

“What about more local partnerships? How can Historic England convene or encourage partnerships with local authorities and social investors to capture those benefits?”

“Are there any lessons from abroad that we can take? Is anybody else doing it?”

“Is there an opportunity for more oversight and co-ordination? Mark?”

“Do you think that convening function is enough? Do you think that swapping notes is enough or do you think that there should be more oversight and control? I am getting the impression that MOD understandably is sort of managing its estate and all the challenges that comes with that but as a kind of separate entity from…”

“Andy and Richard, you both talked about your challenge in maintaining heritage assets while you have to maintain operational requirements, particularly security but other kinds of operational requirements as well. Would you like to add anything on that? That leads to my second question, which is about collaboration. Hi…”

“Oli, you said earlier that all the info is there, but it is about finding it. How did you guys get your stuff out there? Is the success of Numberblocks, Oli, and Horrible Histories, Richard, because your brands are already established? Do you think that they could work without that established brand?”