Projects

The Mayor of London’s Creative Enterprise Zones (CEZ) programme provides funding to places throughout the capital with an established or growing concentration of creative industries. Starting with six zones in 2018, the programme has grown to include 12 zones. To receive funding, each CEZ is required to establish a roster of activities the funding will support and a monitoring programme to assess impact.

In 2022, the GLA commissioned a consortium led by We Made That with support from PRD to review impact of the CEZ programme to date and provide tools to help CEZ monitor impact. PRD’s role was to collect data on jobs, businesses, business births and deaths, and turnover for each CEZ as well as a selection of comparator areas with robust creative activity. We collected data from UK Business Counts, Business Register & Employment Survey, and bespoke requests to ONS and provided a series of static graphs showing change in each area over time. We also aggregated the data into groups (e.g. all CEZ, CEZ by inception year, all comparators, London-wide) to allow for further benchmarking.

To help the CEZ monitor change in their area, we designed and programmed an interactive, publicly-accessible dashboard, providing ready-made, area-specific visualisations for job and business counts, business births and deaths, and turnover estimates. The dashboard is available here (takes ~10 seconds to load, best viewed on a desktop/laptop screen). We also generated a series of raw data spreadsheets and a Creative Enterprise Zones data repository on the GLA datastore for anyone looking to review the methodology or perform additional analysis using the data we collected.

In 2018, the GLA published its Cultural Infrastructure Map, providing locations of several typologies of cultural spaces across the city, such as cinemas, makerspaces, pubs, rehearsal spaces, and performance venues. In 2022, the GLA commissioned an update to the map and an assessment of how London’s cultural infrastructure landscape has changed over time, led by project partners We Made That.

To support the work, PRD used the 2022 data collected by We Made That and mapped where infrastructure opened or closed throughout the city. We visualised the magnitude of change, showing areas with high numbers of closures and few openings; high numbers of openings and few closures; and high numbers of both. This helped identify places in London that could be prioritised to safeguard against further losses of space or churn.

We also calculated infrastructure changes by different types of boundary, such as openings/closures within town centres, strategic industrial land, and opportunity areas, which included correlation analysis to review whether particular boundaries are associated with, or predictors of, higher rates of openings or closures.

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.

LB Hackney commissioned PRD to design, develop and administer a new business grant fund for Hackney Central using Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding (Phase 1). Phase 2 of this project builds on the activities and knowledge gained from the funded projects. It is supporting businesses to transition towards circular practices by widening the understanding of circular economy opportunities.

To achieve this, our approach consisted of the following stages:

• Using ReLondon’s definition of a circular job, we defined Hackney Central’s circular economy profile and its position to lead the transition to more sustainable practices.
• We worked closely with funded projects that are pioneering circular activities, drawing lessons from their journey and exploring how they can become circular champions.
• We developed and tailored a business survey to target circular businesses and understand the different challenges of those at various points of the circular journey.
• We are establishing peer networks and communities of practice to connect businesses, create opportunities for sharing resources between them and strengthen circular supply chains.
• We identified circular opportunities and recommendations for the next steps.

Our work will support the council to better understand specific challenges and opportunities businesses face when implementing circular practices and provide businesses with the opportunity to benefit from stronger local networks, greener practices (ahead of legislation), and ultimately lower costs.

LB Hackney commissioned PRD to develop and administer a new business grant fund for Hackney Central using Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding that the council had received from central government. PRD had been working closely with Hackney Council on the development of the Hackney Central town centre strategy and we used our extensive research on the area’s communities and economy to shape the scope of the new grant fund. The aim of the fund was to support local businesses with Covid-19 recovery and to deliver exciting new projects for the town centre.

In January 2022, the Hackney Central Impact and Ideas Fund opened for applications, receiving almost 200 applications and over £3.5 million of funding requests. PRD led the assessment process and decided, in partnership with the council, on the projects that would be funded. The council awarded almost £600,000 to 23 local independent businesses.

Successful projects include free retail space for emerging fashion designers, a festival celebrating Caribbean culture, a 3D printing process using waste plastics and a walking map showcasing the borough’s history. PRD are now working with successful applicants to evaluate the impact of their projects.

Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust (HWFI CDT) is developing a Circular Economy Hub in the area which aims to reduce emissions from waste, promote reusing and recycling, and encourage more participation from the local community in a circular economy.

PRD, in partnership with Charli Bristow, has been commissioned to conduct a needs assessment of waste and last-mile delivery opportunities in the Hackney Wick area to support this process and identify recommendations for interventions and next steps.

For this research, we developed an approach that allowed for a rapid scan of local business waste flows. We used a blended methodology of desktop research and semi-structured interviews with selected businesses across multiple sectors, such as creative industries, workspaces, food & beverage, and fashion & textiles. The goal was to gain an overall view of their materials inputs and outputs and understand how waste could be used as a resource within their business operations. As part of this approach, we developed a qualitative material flow analysis (MFA) which provided us with specific insights into circular opportunities. We also used our circular economy knowledge and drew from best practices to define potential interventions and next steps for implementation.

Our findings enabled HWFI CDT to consolidate areas of focus and will support them to continue their journey towards circularity.

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.

Ealing is vital to London’s economy. The borough contains around 8% of the city’s designated industrial floorspace, which includes important activity ranging from high-tech manufacturing to logistics. Demand for industrial space has reached unprecedented levels. Ealing wanted to harness this to deliver maximum benefits for its residents.

Together with We Made That, PRD undertook two pieces of research: an Inclusive Economy baseline and an Industrial Workspace Audit. The process brought together a broad range of evidence to enable officers and politicians to think differently about the borough’s socioeconomic performance. This showed that despite perceptions of affluence, Ealing has a range of deeply embedded challenges, ranging from rising in-work poverty to a severe and disproportionate COVID-19 impact.

Industrious Ealing also evidenced significant market failures in the borough’s industrial land market that cannot be addressed through planning policy alone. Our recommendations proposed a coordinated and proactive response to these challenges encompassing the wider policy levers available to the council. Industrious Ealing will enable the borough to maximise and intensify its supply of industrial land whilst also addressing key social, economic, and environmental challenges.

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, 300+ designated town centres, and 60 Business Improvement Districts. It is intended to help people understand how activity on high streets is changing, initially in light of Covid-19 but also throughout ongoing recovery and the current cost of living and doing business crisis.

In 2020, PRD advised the GLA on relevant data to consider for the service and developed an outline structure for a London-wide, multi-stakeholder Data Partnership to guide the new data service. The GLA commissioned PRD for ongoing work with the data service. Throughout 2021 and 2022, this involved training new users, running group sessions for users on new data and analysis techniques, and promoting the data service. We also added capacity to the GLA for data analysis and insight. For example, we analysed and visualised seven years of vacancy data and trends for high street/town centre premises across London; performed cluster analysis on spending trendlines to identify different typologies of Covid-19 recovery and how those typologies link to high street characteristics; and provided fortnightly reports with maps and graphs showing Central London footfall and spending to support the Let’s Do London marketing campaign throughout 2021/2022.

In 2023, we are using the high streets data to research the foundational economy across London’s high streets and town centres to identify places where the foundational economy is or is not meeting the needs of local residents.

As part of the London Borough of Newham’s successful application to the government’s UK Community Renewal Fund, PRD and Useful Projects were commissioned to develop an overarching business case and delivery strategy for green economy initiatives in North Woolwich and Beckton.

Our work is underpinned by a strong evidence base, where we identify the existing social, economic and environmental challenges of the area. We used innovative concepts, such as the Doughnut Economics framework, and tools such as a high-level material flow analysis (MFA) to determine opportunities for green economic growth.

Our approach also included extensive stakeholder and community engagement. We conducted a series of 1-2-1 sessions with people in strategic and delivery organisations such as the GLA, ReLondon, Royal Docks, Albert Island and local education institutions. We also took a citizen-led approach for our community engagement to ensure we built on local capacity and that the people living, working, and studying in Beckton and North Woolwich informed the way forward.

The work has identified a clear vision for Beckton and North Woolwich as Newham’s pioneer for building a future economy that delivers for people and the planet, as well as a set of ‘catalytic’ and ‘enabling’ interventions which will support this evolution. The work will ultimately inform corporate decision making regarding future policy and investment across the borough.

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.

PRD is working with the London Borough of Waltham Forest to support the findings of an independent Affordable Housing Commission. The council wanted external expert scrutiny to understand what it can do to accelerate the delivery of more genuinely affordable homes. PRD provided a wealth of contemporary evidence tracking the impact of development over the last decade to support the recommendations of the Commission. This combined a mix of granular data, which was then tested and validated through resident engagement.

Waltham Forest is one of the most rapidly changing boroughs in London, having the fastest house price growth since 2012. Using the London Planning Datahub, PRD identified the neighbourhoods within the borough that had seen the highest housing development over the last ten years. From this, we used the 2021 Census to compare differences between 2011 and 2021, showing how the borough’s demographics have changed and the contribution of new housing development towards these changes. The granularity of the Census enabled a detailed understanding of changes at development level in areas of highest housing growth. This provided deep insight into who had moved into new homes and the role that tenure (affordable vs market housing) played in these changes.

We supplemented this with a programme of in-depth engagement through focus groups in the areas that had seen the highest development, which helped to test the quantitative data and understand how local people were experiencing area change. Marrying good data with rich qualitative evidence provided a deep understanding of the role of development in the borough’s growth story over the last ten years combined with communities’ experience of rapid change.