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 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.

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.

The Thames Estuary Growth Board was established by central government to provide a coherent approach to development and growth throughout the Thames Estuary, one of the most important regions in the world for creative and cultural production and innovation. The Growth Board comprises representatives from estuary local authorities and businesses.

Building on PRD team members’ track record of work in the Thames Estuary, we have been working with the board via the dedicated Thames Estuary envoy to help them define what successful change and growth looks like throughout the region. We have defined what ‘levelling up’ means for the Thames Estuary and created a bespoke measurement framework based on region-specific data analysis and engagement with the board.

PRD is currently part of an international team conducting a five-year longitudinal study into the impacts of placemaking and public realm investment at Wilton Park, a major regeneration project in Dublin.

IPUT Real Estate is Dublin’s largest commercial real estate developer – a long-term investor in the built environment with a track record of almost 60 years of responsible investment in Ireland. In redeveloping its Wilton Park estate, which includes a 650,000 ft² (60,387 m²) mixed use scheme and upgrades to a one-acre (0.405 ha) city park, IPUT is seeking to understand and measure the social, cultural, economic, and environmental impact of investments at Wilton Park over a five-year period. While construction is due to complete in early 2024, a comprehensive programme of placemaking has been underway at the site since 2021, including providing free artists’ workspace, outdoor events, and public art installations.

PRD is working in collaboration with Hassell, an international architecture, design, and research practice, and Gehl, people-centred urban design specialists. The PRD team is supporting across the project, conducting both engagement (a mix of workshops, on-site perception surveys, and stakeholder interviews) and technical work to measure impact. The project team developed 73 bespoke metrics across 18 measurement areas to track impact. A yearly research report detailing how the development is progressing against these metrics will be published every Autumn. Year one of the research is now complete and the research report can be downloaded from IPUT’s website.

Woolwich is a historic retail centre for outer London which is experiencing significant investment into the town centre and development in riverside areas. It has issues with the town centre experience and perception, particularly around safety and anti-social behaviour at night. Having worked with RB Greenwich on the Greenwich Town Centre Night Time Strategy, we were asked to develop a bid for Woolwich to become the Mayor of London’s Night Time Enterprise Zone (NTEZ) for 2023, which was successful.

We developed a collaborative programme of events with town centre stakeholders and cultural partners at a variety of scales: smaller and more regular to engage with local residents and larger festival-style events to activate the town centre and start to change negative perceptions. Alongside this, the council engaged businesses in a Woolwich Lates branding and promotion scheme which helped businesses benefit from event days, extend their operating hours and serve new customers. We were commissioned to evaluate the impact of the programme and carried out visitor, resident, and business surveys as well as speaking to local groups at community events. We also used datasets from the High Streets Data Service to track impact of footfall and spend on event evenings to show economic and vibrancy effects of the events programme.

The Woolwich NTEZ Evaluation showed impact for businesses, visitors, communities and night workers and helped inform the GLA’s parallel report on the three 2023 NTEZ areas. The Woolwich NTEZ also catalysed partnership working around evening events and changing the town centre experience. Event attendees reported feeling more connected to each other and hopeful about the future of Woolwich, and the Woolwich Lates programme and brand will continue to be used based on the positive results of 2023.