Projects

PRD is working within a multidisciplinary team of architects and civil engineers to deliver a strategic framework to support onward delivery of regeneration in Colchester city centre. Jointly commissioned by Colchester City Council and Essex County Council, the work is focused on unlocking a coordinated programme of high-quality development and public realm upgrades across a portfolio of council-owned sites.

PRD’s role spans viability analysis, governance advice and delivery strategy. We have provided development appraisals for a range of potential development options across council-owned sites, from car parks to unused brownfield land. This exercise offered a market-facing view on phasing, risk and public value. Our appraisals revealed opportunities for both early delivery and cross-subsidy to ensure the right scale and mix of development is achieved for the long-term vitality of Colchester.

Beyond viability, PRD is advising on partnership structures and delivery vehicles that reflect the willingness and capacity of Colchester City and Essex County Councils. This includes supporting the evolution of regeneration partnership agreements and preparing a business plan for future targeted investment. Our work ensures that site delivery is grounded in market reality without foregoing ambitious placemaking and long-term value creation.

The Delivery Framework and associated support will guide future decision making and align public resources behind shared priorities. The programme plays a pivotal role in reshaping Colchester’s urban form, delivering homes, new public spaces and a reimagined transport interchange, supporting the city’s wider growth story across North Essex.

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.

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.

PRD has supported Mansfield District Council and its partners to develop a credible strategy for Mansfield Connect, a flagship civic reuse project anchoring wider town centre regeneration.

At the heart of the project is the transformation of the disused Beales department store into a vibrant civic and community hub. By co-locating public services, enterprise space, flexible workspace and community facilities in an accessible town centre building, the refurbished space will drive footfall, enhance the public realm, and boost town centre vitality through day and nighttime activities.

PRD shaped the delivery and investment case, positioning Mansfield Connect not only as a capital project, but as a catalyst for long-term change. We developed a robust evidence base, options assessment and operational financial modelling, testing a variety of scenarios, viability implications and delivery pathways. Alongside this, we co-designed a theory of change approach to articulate the project’s contribution to broader regeneration outcomes.

This work underpinned Mansfield’s successful £20m Levelling Up Fund bid. The funding is now enabling the council to deliver a flexible civic asset fit for a modern town centre, reactivating the high street and improving access to essential services. We see Mansfield Connect as a blueprint for place-based service integration and inclusive town centre recovery.

Peterborough is a fast-growing city with strong fundamentals but deep structural challenges. Commissioned by the Peterborough City Council, PRD undertook a strategic review of development opportunities across Peterborough to reposition the city as a more dynamic regional centre.

We built a comprehensive evidence base exploring market dynamics, spatial opportunity, and delivery barriers. While the city benefits from high connectivity, housing affordability, and significant development potential, it is marked by fragmented land ownership and viability challenges. Our analysis identified over 68 hectares of developable land with capacity for 4,350 homes and 26,000 sqm of commercial space.

In synthesising the ‘so what?’, we set out a clear strategic pathway for delivery: a city centre-wide supplementary planning document to provide planning clarity and design ambition; a recalibrated approach to site prioritisation; and a delivery strategy aligned with governance and infrastructure plans. We identified that the redevelopment of land at the train station and the Anglia Ruskin University expansion are prime catalysts for growth in the city.

The work provides a credible, market-facing framework for regeneration, giving the council and Homes England the tools to bring forward a new era of city centre growth, resilience and public value.

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.

Development in Runcorn faces several delivery challenges and constraints, including multiple land ownership, safeguarded land and challenging local property market economics.

PRD provided market insight for Runcorn’s Station Quarter as part of a multidisciplinary team. Our input included an in-depth contextual market baseline of local and regional property market economics, developed through data analysis and consultations with agents, key public-sector stakeholders, landowners and key leaseholders. PRD also appraised the development options for the emerging masterplan, which includes consideration of how the council can use its assets to deliver the masterplan and stimulate wider investment in the area.

The masterplan will catalyse wider regeneration in Runcorn, including the town centre, and harness the regeneration potential of HS2.

Acting on a key commitment within the Council’s Delivery Plan, LB Southwark established the Southwark Land Commission in September 2022, a first of its kind in London. The Southwark Land Commission was a six-month investigation as part of the council’s commitment to deliver on its ‘Fairer, Greener, Safer’ Plan. It seeks to democratise land in the borough by rebalancing influence over land and property, to ensure that land in the borough delivers the broadest possible benefit, and to critically look at what needs to change to deliver more ‘public good’ from land use.

PRD helped curate an evidence-based process, led by an independent group of diverse and representative group of people, from landowners, members of Southwark’s civil society and leading thinkers and experts on the subject, to serve as Members of the Commission. The land commission challenged how land and space is used to benefit the local communities, with an explicit objective to “free up land for public good”.

Over the course of six months, the commission met formally on four occasions; firstly, to review challenges and existing evidence; secondly, to reflect on the insights and views sourced from community groups and individuals reached via a parallel engagement programme; then thirdly, to identify opportunities to act and to draft initial recommendations; and finally, to refine these proposals and prioritise recommended actions.

The process was also enriched through a community engagement programme to understand and test ideas and actions, in the form of four area-based workshops, targeted sessions to reach under-represented groups (through Southwark Youth Parliament and the Southwark Black Parents Forum), and feedback workshops on emerging recommendations, led by We Made That. PRD also carried out one-to-one discussions with key stakeholders.

The Commission came up with a set of seven recommendations, underpinned by the guiding principles, rooted in maximising social purpose, and securing long-term environmental sustainability. The full list of recommendations and priority actions are available in the Land for Good report on Southwark Council’s website.

The Southwark Land Commission is a good starting point for other places in the UK to develop their own plans of action for this important agenda. As such, Southwark Cabinet will formally consider the Commission’s report and recommendations, and an official response from the council is expected soon.

For more content, see our journal posts: Democratising land for public good: reflections from the Southwark Land Commission, Learning from the Southwark Land Commission: implications for other authorities