Public and private partnerships are proving their worth, according to a leading developer.

Nathan Cornish, managing director of Urban Splash, said his company's work with regional development agency Advantage West Midlands at Fort Dunlop and Walsall Waterfront dispelled the myth that the two sectors could not work together to create exciting and sustainable schemes capable of transforming derelict areas.

Mr Cornish was speaking at the Building Technologies WM Conference 2007, hosted by the West Midlands Building Technologies Cluster in association with the West Midlands Centre for Construction Excellence at Millennium Point, Birmingham.

He said: "We are a design-led organisation, and before we take on any project it has to fulfil one simple criterion - it has to be exciting. Urban Splash uses the best architects to design what we think are great buildings that help set the tone when regenerating a run down area.

"We have achieved world-class results working with the public sector, particularly Advantage West Midlands, and dispelled the myth that the public and private sector can't work in partnership to create exciting and sustainable schemes that can transform areas."

Michael Ciotkowski, building technologies cluster manager at AWM, said: "The construction and operation of buildings is the UK's largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately half of the UK's total. Customers are now demanding more sustainable buildings with reduced carbon emissions helping to prevent further climate change. We have to stay ahead of the game and start building the environment of tomorrow, today.

"The West Midlands has a building technologies industry with the creativity and expertise needed to develop the solutions to climate change and to seize the business opportunities that will secure our future."

The building technologies industry provides 263,000 jobs in the region and its annual turnover of £6.7 billion is 11.4 per cent of the West Midlands economy.