“Don’t you think the Thames Valley is going to eat your breakfast?” someone from the audience asked representatives of west London boroughs during a panel discussion titled ‘West London: collaboration and the commercial story’. “More specifically,” he continued: “Are you worried about Slough?”

With impeccable timing, the day after the panel, U+I and AshbyCapital officially launched The Future Works, the first phase completed of a three-office-building speculative development next to Slough train station. The development is the latest evidence of regeneration in a town undergoing something of a renaissance at the moment, with British Airways just this week rumoured to be scoping the location for a potential new HQ.

Property Week visited the building just before it completed to catch up with Simon Hesketh from U+I and Peter Ferrari from AshbyCapital and find out whether their west London competitors really should be worried.