Projects

We developed a review and impact assessment of the activities of Camden Collective affordable workspace over the past 15 years. This included the benefits and contributions of the workspace to supporting business innovation, sector and leadership diversity, and support for start-ups, small businesses and creative industries. We also explored the impacts of affordable workspace as meanwhile use for high street vitality, and the contributions of the Collective to the strategic aims of LB Camden and the GLA.

The Albany is a community arts centre and cultural hub in Deptford that exists to platform local artists and drive creative participation in southeast London. They identified an opportunity to grow their revenue streams and impact with physical improvements to the building, made possible through residential development above the theatre. The Albany looked to secure £8m funding from the GLA to partially support capital improvements, and required an assessment of the economic and social impacts to support their case.

We worked closely with The Albany team and their development partner Stories to understand how changes to the building would affect operations, space users, and the capacity to further support artist development and launching both careers and start-up creative and community organisations. We assessed qualitative and quantitative impacts to provide a holistic picture from financial benefits for the organisation to long-term community development support, and showed how these supported the priorities and policies of the Cultural Strategy for London.

Our Impact Assessment was submitted to the GLA as part of the business case for capital funding. It showed that by revolutionising their business model through better and more efficient use of their building, the Albany could become more sustainable and create additional artistic and community activity, and become a model for balancing commercial activity with locally-responsive support for creatives and communities.

Developer Reef commissioned PRD to develop a social value strategy for Tribeca, a mixed-use development near Kings Cross containing residential, office and retail uses.

PRD developed a thorough evidence base of the local area and engaged with local community organisations to understand the needs and challenges facing the local community.

Through a series of workshops with Reef, we identified levers they could use to deliver social value, on-site and off-site, and recommendations for areas of action.

The final output was a report laying out how Reef could use its levers of Space, Funding and a Social Value Charter to create positive impact within the themes of Community Wellbeing, Pathways to Opportunity, and Inclusive Resilience.

Following the work, Reef invited PRD to sit on Tribeca’s ESG board and to help oversee the implementation of the social value strategy.

PRD, alongside Augarde & Partners, were commissioned by LB Hackney to report on the social impact delivered to date at Trowbridge Gardens. Trowbridge Gardens was an underused council asset in Hackney Wick, transformed in 2019 into an affordable workspace and community space operated by Arbeit Studios. The purpose of the study was to understand the social and economic impact of the project, exploring how investment by the council in the form of discounted rent has unlocked wide-ranging impact for the local business and residential communities.

We undertook a needs assessment of the area and used this, alongside findings from engagement with Arbeit and site tenants and users, to inform a bespoke social impact framework for Trowbridge Gardens. The research uncovered that the site was having a much wider impact than was originally conceived, with impact themes ranging from local business resilience, supporting employment and skills, community cohesion and improving access to nature. The final report reported a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data to tell the impact story, and can be read on Arbeit’s website.