TMP supports IHE Greater London Branch Conference as Gold Sponsor
TMP joined highway engineers, local authorities, contractors, consultants and fellow manufacturers in London for the 2026 IHE Greater London Branch Conference.
Held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms on Friday 26 June, the annual event brought together around 120 highways professionals to discuss some of the biggest pressures facing the sector.
We were the Gold Sponsor, continuing our long-standing relationship with the Institute of Highway Engineers Greater London Branch and supporting an event we have been involved with for several years.
Bringing London’s highways community together
More than 20 of London’s 32 boroughs were represented at the conference, alongside highway maintenance contractors, design engineers, consultants, manufacturers and other industry specialists.
That mix of people is what makes the event so valuable.
London’s boroughs manage some of the busiest and most complex highway environments in the country. They are balancing ageing assets, increasing maintenance demands, limited budgets, sustainability targets and the need to keep disruption to a minimum across heavily used networks.
Bringing the people responsible for designing, managing and maintaining those networks together creates an important opportunity to share experiences, compare approaches and discuss what is working in practice.
An industry under pressure
The theme for this year’s conference was Under Pressure, reflecting the growing demands being placed on highway authorities and the wider supply chain.
It was a theme that closely matched many of the conversations taking place throughout the day.
Local authorities are under constant pressure to do more with less. Assets need to last longer, maintenance teams need to work safely and efficiently, and every product choice has to be considered in terms of whole-life cost, sustainability and performance.
For TMP, these are familiar discussions.
Choosing the right highway product is rarely just about the initial purchase price. Installation, maintenance access, durability, repairability, energy use and what happens when an asset is struck all have an impact over its lifetime.
Events like the IHE Greater London Branch Conference provide a valuable opportunity to hear directly from the people dealing with those challenges every day.
Conversations that matter
Rich McKenna was there for TMP, catching up with familiar faces and speaking to delegates from across the capital.
The conversations covered current maintenance challenges, future projects, product performance and, inevitably, football and the unusually hot London weather.
More importantly, the event gave us another valuable opportunity to listen.
For a UK highways manufacturer, understanding the pressures facing designers, engineers and maintenance teams is essential. New products and improvements need to respond to what is happening out on the network, not just what works on a drawing or specification sheet.
Speaking directly with authorities, contractors and consultants helps us understand where assets are failing, where maintenance is becoming more difficult and where better design could help reduce disruption, waste or long-term cost.
It also gives us the chance to explain the thinking behind our products and discuss how different solutions may perform within specific highway environments.
Supporting collaboration across the sector
TMP has worked with the IHE Greater London Branch for around five years, supporting its activities and engaging with the engineers and authorities it represents.
Becoming a Gold Sponsor of the 2026 conference was a natural continuation of that relationship.
Regional industry events create space for open and useful discussion between the public and private sectors. They allow people to challenge established ways of working, share lessons from live projects and learn from the experiences of neighbouring authorities.
For manufacturers, they also provide a valuable insight into the issues gaining momentum across the sector.
One conversation may focus on reducing maintenance visits. Another may be about improving visibility, simplifying installation, lowering embodied carbon or finding alternatives to powered highway assets.
Taken together, those conversations give us a much clearer picture of how priorities are changing and where better product design can make a practical difference.
You have to be in the room
The highways sector works best when manufacturers, designers, contractors and local authorities talk openly about the challenges they are facing.
That is why being at events like the IHE Greater London Branch Conference matters.
They are not just an opportunity to present products. They are a chance to listen, learn and understand the wider pressures affecting the people responsible for keeping the network moving.
Thank you to the IHE Greater London Branch team for organising another engaging and well-attended conference, and to everyone who took the time to speak with Rich during the day.
TMP will continue to support these conversations and work alongside highway authorities, designers and contractors to develop practical, maintainable and more sustainable products for the UK road network.
To discuss an upcoming highways project or arrange a technical presentation for your team, contact TMP.
