Dan Whelan
Dan Whelan covers how investment, planning and policy shape the built environment across the North of England and Scotland, with a focus on the way major schemes change town and city centres.
As deputy editor at Place North West, he splits his time between daily real estate reporting, longer-form features on regeneration, and fronting videos and events that dig into what new guidance and government decisions mean for developers, local authorities and investors.
Development and planning across the North
Whelan’s core reporting tracks significant development proposals and planning decisions, from large employment sites to civic and cultural projects. His coverage of a proposed purpose-built facility for L&K Group on thirty acres off Junction 33 of the M6 south of Lancaster shows his interest in how land allocations and specialist occupiers drive economic change. He reports on public-sector capital schemes such as the £12.5m North Wales archives project in Mold, following contractor appointments and the route to planning submission in detail. His work frequently follows schemes from early plans through procurement and delivery, giving readers a clear sense of timelines, risk points and who is driving a project.
He pays close attention to the interplay between local authorities and the private sector in unlocking sites. Articles on council-led regeneration and development facilitation, including pieces picked up in external commentary around Salford and other North West locations, underline his focus on how decisions within planning systems can stall or accelerate investment. His reporting on occupier moves, such as Kyndryl’s decision to open an AI hub in Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building, links corporate strategy with prime real estate, explaining why particular buildings and cities are chosen and what that signals for the wider market.
Regeneration and town and city centres
Whelan regularly writes about town and city centre change, especially where places are trying to reinvent themselves after years of underinvestment. His feature “A postcard from Birkenhead: making people believe in change” follows a long-running regeneration story, focusing on credibility, delivery and how local stakeholders respond after “years of false dawns”. Coverage of hospitality and leisure openings, such as Shrimp Shack’s first restaurant outside its home market in a 6,600 sq ft Manchester unit, shows how he treats individual lettings as part of a broader narrative about footfall, retail mix and city-centre vibrancy.
At national events like UKREiiF he reports on warnings that town and city centres risk becoming “deserts” without changes in government attitude to hospitality, illustrating his habit of tying sector-specific issues back to the health of high streets and urban cores. Across these pieces he tends to foreground the practical consequences of policy and investment decisions — who uses the space, what kinds of activity it supports, and whether promised transformations feel real on the ground.
Policy, sustainability and guidance
Beyond individual schemes, Whelan is closely involved in explaining new policy frameworks to the property industry. In video coverage asking “How do you deliver a scheme under Greater Manchester’s new sustainability policy?”, he brings together the guidance’s authors, the combined authority and developer Harworth to interrogate how the rules work in practice and what they mean for future pipelines. His role in these formats is to frame the discussion, draw out specific implications for design and viability, and connect abstract policy language to the realities of putting projects through planning.
He also contributes to wider commentary strands across the Place group, joining analysis pieces that look back on weeks of networking events, panel debates and front-line news from across the North of England and Scotland. This side of his work gives him a panoramic view of market sentiment, enabling him to link discrete announcements — whether a sustainability guideline, a council strategy shift or a major letting — into a coherent picture of where regional real estate is heading.
Events, panels and industry engagement
Whelan frequently steps out from straight reporting to host and curate events. At Close Brothers’ Tomorrow’s Developer gathering in Manchester he appears alongside colleagues to speak to aspiring homebuilders, reflecting his interest in the SME end of the development market and the practicalities of getting projects off the ground. Across Place North West, Place North East and Place Yorkshire he fronts recap videos that review “networking events, interactive panels, and front-line news”, giving attendees and viewers structured takeaways from busy conference schedules.
His event work extends to major industry gatherings such as MIPIM, where he has shared stages with senior figures like transport and regeneration leader Eamonn Boylan. These roles position him as a conduit between policymakers, investors and local practitioners. The same curiosity that runs through his reporting — about how decisions translate into built outcomes — shapes the questions he asks on stage and the themes he chooses to highlight in post-event coverage.
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