Turning thoughts into action needed for 2026

15th January 2026

Nigel Horton-Baker, Chief Executive of REDA, looks ahead to the key challenges for Reading in the months and years to come. 

2025 was a strong year for Reading but the year ahead needs to be one in which talk turns to action if we are to stay on track to achieve the long-term growth we crave. This is not an easy task to deliver when faced with a prevailing wind that brings downward pressures on business finances, increasing job vacancy rates and rising unemployment. Many individuals are also still facing a cost of living crisis. 

To help guide and shape our local economy, REDA and Reading Borough Council are rolling out a new ten-year economic development framework. The framework sets out evidence-based strategic activities to support, train, educate and upskill local people while stimulating economic growth in our global tech sectors and businesses to provide new jobs and economic multipliers locally. The framework also evidences the economic and employment opportunities ahead, driven by new residential development, town centre regeneration, a new hospital, development around the football club, further development at the Science Park and housing sites south of the M4, not to mention the third runway at Heathrow.

   
REDA and the Council are at one on the need to address inclusion and diversity through the framework. These are long-standing issues in Reading, but working together we will give more people the opportunity to benefit from Reading’s successful economy. 

There has been a lot of recent debate about the future of town centres. Reading town centre is changing fast with new residential development and experiential offerings and continues to perform well. For the most part, our high street did okay over Christmas, holding our own against other major retail centres in the southeast outside London, with people making fewer trips to the town centre but spending more when they are there. Food & Beverage and Fashion continued to do well especially after Christmas with sales attracting high levels of consumer spend.

In addition to the economic development framework action plan to support the town centre, we need to safeguard the longer-term and with Reading Borough Council we will be rolling out the new Town Centre Strategy. In the short and medium-term REDA will continue to deliver the £1.3m BID business plan and work with business, the Council and other key stakeholders to ensure the BID endures for a further 5 years when its current term ends in 2029.    

Station Hill is setting new standards in terms of office quality and levels of sustainability for Reading and the South East. In 2026, we will be launching a report on the ‘green’ credentials of our town centre and using this and other key locational factors as part of our marketing plans to attract new modern HQs, tech and office-based global companies to Reading.  

At a regional level, we need to come together across the Thames Valley to create one super-charged economy under the leadership of an elected Mayor. There are already good working partnerships across Berkshire between the public and private sector, tapping into Government funding for tourism and visitor development and innovation and tech projects. We have shown we can collaborate successfully to create economic growth.  

A letter has now been sent to Government by the local authorities across Berkshire and Oxfordshire expressing a desire for devolution and inclusion in a future Devolution Programme. Citing the evidence of our track record in governance and delivery, it makes the case based on the existing regional £97 billion economy and its huge projected growth potential. Our high-tech, research-led economy is well placed to deliver on the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, combining and building on the strengths of the emerging Oxford to Cambridge Arc and the well-established M4 digital technology, growing AI and defence corridor – otherwise known as Britain’s first Silicon Valley. 

Gandhi once famously said ‘The future depends on what you do now.’ We will be re-launching a refreshed version of Reading Smart and Sustainable City, a 2050 Vision to ensure that what we do now has the long-term impact we desire. 

2026 will be important for Reading in the here-and-now but it is even more important for our long-term sustainable growth as Reading repositions itself as a powerhouse city-region economy at the heart of a strategic mayoral authority. Together, we will form a powerful business voice and a globally competitive economy, based on key growth sectors, research and higher education.