Belfast has three major retail schemes in the pipeline, with the 800,000 sq ft Victoria Square due to open March 2008 and Royal Exchange, providing another 800,000 sq ft, due to start on-site shortly after.

Jennings has organised a range of action groups and 95 per cent of the city's prime retailers are now represented alongside property developers and other stakeholders. This allowed her to push for a co-ordinated marketing strategy for the city centre.

In the key Christmas trading period of 2006, she was able to co-ordinate opening hours, with all city centre shops staying open midweek until 7pm, and as a result, Christmas footfall in Belfast was up 4.5 per cent against a GB average of 2.7 per cent.

Jennings has also been at the forefront of promoting Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Northern Ireland, and she established a voluntary BID in Belfast. She was also instrumental in establishing a co-ordinated marketing campaign for Belfast, targeting both inward investors and the consumer sector. Research shows that British, Irish and European investors' confidence in Belfast is at an all-time high and 71 per cent of residents now say they have pride in their city.

The economic benefits of this new feel-good factor are clear to see: Belfast is enjoying exponential growth in tourist numbers; an all-time low in unemployment at just 4.5 per cent; and an uplift in residential property prices of more than 40 per cent over the past 12 months.

Jennings is now moving on to face a new challenge: she has accepted the role of chief executive of Liverpool One, Grosvenor's 2 million sq ft retail-led regeneration project, which opens in 2008.

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