Projects

After launching its Small Sites, Small Builders programme in 2018, the GLA commissioned PRD to review the impact of the programme’s pilot schemes and determine how the programme can be improved ahead of a wider rollout.

PRD evaluated which types of organisations received effective support, the form of support (e.g. grants, guidance to sourcing or unlocking suitable land, upskilling staff), the impact of support, and overall value for money. We also consulted landowners, GLA partners, and small builders to gather feedback on the types of support and changes necessary to strengthen the programme.

We developed a forward plan for the GLA mapping a set of interventions to improve the programme and make it as impactful as possible while working within a limited budget. As an extension to our commission, we developed public-facing guidance for unlocking small sites.

The Mayor of London’s Social Integration Strategy recognises the importance of better evidence of what social integration means and how to measure it. Working with the Greater London Authority, PRD prepared guidance and tools for organisations to use when seeking to understand and measure social integration in places and projects

The Social Integration Toolkit is a world leader in city-specific integration measurement. It helps track specific impacts of policies and projects, improving planning and leading to better initiatives to support Londoners. It aims to help establish a better understanding of the circumstances of individuals and communities by focusing on three core themes: relationships, participation, and equality.

PRD is currently working with several clients to implement the toolkit on their own projects.

Our work on the toolkit builds on previous support PRD team members have provided to the GLA in developing measurement frameworks, such as the Good Growth Monitoring and  Evaluation Framework.

Download the Social Integration Toolkit

PRD supported Guy’s & St Thomas’ (GSTT) on their 15-year, £4bn regeneration of its Westminster Bridge and London Bridge campuses. Pre-Covid, PRD worked alongside GSTT in their offices to provide on-demand advice on all property-related matters.

Recent work has included developing proposals for partnerships with key stakeholders and landowners; providing evidence and information to generate support from the governance teams; and identifying and working up proposals for assets that will allow assist with decanting in the short term and further capitalise on regeneration uplift in the long term.

PRD has developed a range of viability models to guide the work programme. We have also helped soft-market test ideas with developers, investors and occupiers, particularly in the MedTech and life sciences sectors, and have managed external consultants on behalf of GSTT to ensure that they receive the best advice possible.

The London Borough of Lambeth sought to establish a council-owned housing company to reach ambitious targets for building new social rented housing. PRD initially advised on organisational structuring, delivery strategy and programme management options; undertook extensive engagement and education with councillors, officers, and other stakeholders; liaised with tax, accounting, and legal advisors to test the robustness of the proposed structure against Homes for Lambeth’s (HfL) development goals; helped establish a company Board; and supported the Board to consider messaging and opportunities to meet wider council objectives.

Since Cabinet approved PRD’s recommendation to establish HfL as a wholly-owned company with a group structure and the detailed governance proposals, we have continued to support HfL at the Board, executive and wider stakeholder levels. With partners , PRD has carried out business and resource planning, co-ordinated legal advice on loans and financing, prepared documents for the Regulator of Social Housing, and developed agreements between the council and HfL.

LB Hackney commissioned PRD to establish an in-depth evidence base on Hoxton’s communities and economy with a view to informing future strategies, partnership working, delivery, and investment. The evidence drew on PRD’s detailed review of socioeconomic data and an extensive programme of community engagement to understand the lived experiences of residents, carried out with project partners Fluid.

Through this work, we helped LB Hackney understand perceptions on how the area is changing, local support networks and their capacities, the needs of residents and which areas need better support mechanisms, and how the council can work with partners to improve opportunities for residents.

Following this, PRD undertook a similar review focused on businesses in Shoreditch to review the effects of Covid-19. The two studies are directly supporting a new Action Plan for local investment.

Imperial College London’s White City estate is a world-class research campus located near a major London hub for media, leisure, retail, and nightlife. Imperial commissioned PRD to assess the amenities and public realm at the White City campus and make the case for new placemaking initiatives befitting of one of the most innovative universities in the world.

PRD reviewed the existing ‘landscape’ and asset base at White City, covering aspects such as public realm and connectivity, amenities such as eating places and public events, business/networking opportunities, and the university’s ties to surrounding communities. We engaged the Imperial board, development team, and on-site students, researchers, and incubator enterprises to gather wide-ranging views on what works well about the campus and what could be improved—from business support and networking opportunities to the campus food and beverage offer.

Our final report and presentation to Imperial included examples of inspirational, replicable placemaking interventions from leading research hubs in other cities; the cost of inaction; and a call to establish Imperial White City as an Innovation District with next steps to achieve this.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) secured £1m of the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund to promote employment and economic growth in and around the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area (KCOA). This has been match funded by £1m from RBKC’s Capital Fund.

Alongside regular collaborators We Made That and Redo, PRD developed a spatial framework to expand Kensal’s creative economy. Our consortium undertook a mapping exercise which revealed the importance of affordable creative workspace and civic and charitable sector clusters not just for the local area but to the wider borough. We developed interventions, including a new workspace for the area, that will ensure development in KCOA reflects and boosts the existing creative economy and brings opportunities for jobs and enterprise for North Kensington.

We also supported RBKC to draft a Supplementary Planning Document to further support the area and we are currently exploring a wider asset development strategy for the borough, in which RBKC takes a direct role to safeguard affordable spaces for the long term and embed inclusive economic growth.

PRD has an ongoing relationship with LB Newham across several workstreams. For example, we developed a comprehensive evidence base for the council’s inclusive economy strategy, which is formed around community wealth building principles. Community wealth building is an economic development approach that redirects wealth and the gains of economic growth back to local neighbourhoods and people.

In response to Covid-19, throughout which Newham’s residents were among the hardest-hit in the country, the council commissioned PRD to expand the strategy to a wider recovery and reorientation plan, which has formed the basis of the borough’s new Corporate Plan.

We have also undertaken research on the impacts of Covid-19 throughout Newham, supported development of a new affordable workspace programme, delivered data training for officers, established a measurement framework for the Corporate Plan and other strategies, and provided socioeconomic data to support masterplanning in areas including Stratford, Canning Town, and Custom House.

The GLA’s high streets data service brings together dynamic datasets to build a detailed picture of activity across the city’s 600+ high streets. It is intended to help people understand how activity on high streets is changing, especially in light of Covid-19 and ongoing recovery. PRD initially advised the GLA on relevant data to consider for the service and developed an outline structure for a London-wide, multi-stakeholder Data Partnership which will help guide the new data service.

The GLA commissioned PRD for ongoing work with the data service and partnership, which involves bespoke data analysis and reporting, refining the partnership structure, training support, and promoting the data service.

The OPDC development area spans the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Brent and Ealing and is responsible for regenerating 950 hectares around Old Oak Common and the industrial Park Royal site. The project will bring 24,000 homes, 55,000 jobs, and a new HS2 station. Within Park Royal is a substantial element of the site. Covering around 500 hectares, it is London’s largest areas of designated Strategic Industrial Land (SIL). Its economy comprises over 35,000 jobs spread across around 2,000 businesses and contributes circa £2 billion economic output (GVA) per annum.

PRD has been involved in several studies and strategies for this area:

• We produced the What Works: Park Royal study to develop clear plans for industrial regeneration in Park Royal. The study advises how the economy can grow and evolve in response to Covid-19 and nearby non-industrial regeneration, with an explicit focus on providing new affordable workspace.
• We built a bespoke Industrial Funding Strategy to support the OPDC’s ambitions for industrial growth in Park Royal and Old Oak North, along with partners Newbridge Advisors and Gerald Eve. The IFS identifies spaces requiring investment and intensification, investment gaps, funding sources to meet needs/fill the gaps, and how OPDC and its partners can access the funding sources. Our team consulted with cross-sector stakeholders (including the core investor, developer and occupier market) to inform the strategy, which will directly drive how OPDC delivers regeneration.
• We developed a Socioeconomic Funding Strategy with Regeneris Consulting to identify sources such as the Apprenticeships Levy, domestic and European funding, business rate retention, and private investment that can be used for local social and economic initiatives.
• PRD team members have also worked on the OPDC’s Future Sectors Study, Food Sector Study, Regeneration Funding Study, and the Park Royal Intensification Study.

Our ongoing partnership with Redo is a platform to help local authorities create asset value strategies by using redundant buildings for social good, particularly to support co-working, start-up and scale-up businesses, and local enterprise.

Redo is the consulting arm of 3space, an affordable/flexible workspace provider. Their model for every space let at an affordable rate, another is given at peppercorn rent, while PRD brings expertise on innovative asset strategies and monitoring success once a space is under operation.

Together, we have delivered and monitored ongoing impact of projects in Brixton, Lancaster, Kensal, and Old Oak & Park Royal.

London’s Royal Docks is one of the city’s most substantial regeneration sites, with 15,000 homes and 40,000 jobs arriving in the next two decades. PRD team members have been involved with the Royal Docks for several years, helping establish an economic vision for the area and indicators of successful regeneration.

We are currently working with the Royal Docks Team—a partnership between the Greater London Authority and LB Newham—to create the Royal Docks Success Framework, which sets out a Theory of Change for regeneration. The Framework details practical monitoring and evaluation criteria for tracking the evolution of the area and understanding progress towards the success indicators/outcomes.

Establishing the foundations for a partnership approach to data collection has been an important element of the work. This has involved in-depth engagement with stakeholders across the area (including developers, anchors businesses and institutions, workspaces, public sector partners, and the community) to map the types of data and information that they hold which could contribute to the partnership, their appetite to share information, and their willingness to collaborate on new forms of social and economic research to respond to evidence gaps.

We also carried out a review of the Royal Docks Team’s delivery progress during its first two years, which has helped refine feasible delivery timescales and influenced decisions about how the Team will operate throughout the rest of the development process.

LB Southwark commissioned PRD to develop an economic evidence base for the borough as the first step towards establishing a new economic strategy. The evidence base centres on three core themes and the issues that cut across them:

• How fair is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. access to jobs, amenities, and services; income inequality; opportunities for young people)
• How green is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. economy-related emissions; green jobs; implications and equity of green growth)
• How resilient is Southwark’s economy? (e.g. resilience of sectors, residents, workers; climate resilience)

With a strong focus on issues of equity and addressing inequality, the evidence base uses a mix of ‘traditional’ ONS social and economic indicators (e.g. sector breakdowns, jobs and business growth, income) and non-governmental data that provides more nuance on inequality and communities, such as information from the Urban Health Index, Trust for London, Consumer Data Research Centre, Civic Strength Index, and emerging research on low carbon goods and services activities. To understand the spatial aspects of inequality across the borough, the evidence base uses numerous maps, which tend to highlight central Southwark as an area where inequality is particularly embedded and deep.

Alongside highly visual data analysis, we provided a series of decision points and considerations for each theme, intended to prompt LB Southwark on which approaches or focus areas may be most suitable for the new economic strategy.

Supported by acclaimed architects Astudio, PRD was commissioned to develop an Action Plan to secure the long-term viability of Sutton town centre. LB Sutton commissioned this innovative project to re-energise the existing strategy for the town centre, which had lost momentum as the economic downturn made the major spatial strategy for the area undeliverable.

We did a thorough analysis of the town centre’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and a review of policy, baseline data and best practices. Together with LB Sutton and local stakeholders, we developed a portfolio of short, medium and long-term interventions of varying levels of complexity, cost and risk.

The revised strategy promotes an innovative, community-driven focus, with public realm, meanwhile uses and public art being conduits to reposition the town centre at the heat of civic life. It also proposes a proactive approach that empowers the council to take control of regeneration and development in the town centre.

LB Sutton has since embarked on a range of initiatives which build on the proposals in the action plan; make the most of the town centre’s long pedestrian thoroughfare; and present a vibrant mix of uses at a human scale. These initiatives include Sutton Works (delivering innovative workspace in a former BHS department store with GLA Good Growth Funding), the Market House Hub, the Future High Streets Fund project and the Town Centre Masterplan.