Projects

Brighton & Hove City council sought to develop a new Economic Strategy to guide their activity between 2024-2027.

It was important for Brighton & Hove City Council that the Economic Strategy was shaped in partnership with businesses and organisations across the city, who will help deliver any actions. They were also keen that in process of developing the strategy itself new relationships were established.

PRD took a collaborative approach which sought input from stakeholders from the start of the process. This involved a series of themed workshops with council officers, civil society organisations and businesses. Our conversations were broader than what might be included in a traditional economic strategy, for example bringing in representatives from public health, culture and circular economy, recognising the links between these and the economy of the city.

Alongside this, we developed a short evidence base shaped around how Brighton & Hove’s economy could be more fair, green and productive. This situated Brighton & Hove’s economy within wider national economic challenges and opportunities.

Our outputs are still being developed, but include a short visual evidence base and a strategy report.

The North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration team, a multi-authority body, commissioned PRD and project partners AR Urbanism to review options for two key high street sites on behalf of Bromsgrove District Council. The sites are at either end of the town centre, which Bromsgrove DC aims to revitalise with new workplaces, retail, and leisure.

To complement the council’s own ambitions, PRD and ARU consulted various stakeholders throughout the town centre. With this feedback, the project team developed options for the sites and PRD assessed the deliverability and viability for each, resulting in scheme options that would be attractive to the developer market, fundable, and play a wider role in regenerating the town centre.

The proposals included a mix of housing and ground floor community uses for one site and a mix of workspace and meanwhile use leisure on the other, which will enhance the existing town centre by bringing in new residents and modern, bespoke spaces for different uses.

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.

After a deep Citizens’ Assembly engagement process with residents, businesses and local stakeholders, LB Camden identified a need to preserve and further develop community assets and services and to better support its residents to live full and healthy lives in the evening and night time. LB Camden commissioned PRD to develop an Evening and Night Time Strategy to bring context to the recommendations from engagement and explore both interventions and strategies for delivery within the council and with external partners.

We brought together diverse sources of data to create the evidence base for the strategy across night workers, cultural infrastructure and night time venues, business challenges, women’s safety and anti-social behaviour. This supported and added emphasis to the Citizens’ Assembly conclusions and informed our engagement across the council to identify the priority actions to be taken forward in the strategy.

Our output, the draft Camden Evening and Night Time Strategy, is currently being reviewed for adoption. The strategy proposes long-term resident and business engagement to continue to develop night time interventions and initiatives, making it responsive to local needs and continually updated as the night time economy changes and grows.

Coast to Capital is the Local Enterprise Partnership covering Brighton to Bognor Regis on the coast up to Epsom, Surrey. The region is expected to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19, with vulnerabilities due to high-risk groups for Covid-19 exposure living along the coast, reliance on Gatwick Airport for employment, a high proportion of self-employed people, business closures in Brighton & Hove, and more.

With the right investment and support, the Coast to Capital area is well-placed to recover. PRD developed a brochure for the LEP illustrating the potential for the area to ‘build back stronger, smarter, and greener’, focusing on development and infrastructure projects that can tackle long-standing socioeconomic challenges as well as issues caused or exacerbated by Covid-19. The brochure is a tool for the LEP to set out its vision for the region with a view to attracting investment and government funding.

For example, the brochure outlines the LEP’s aspirations to see a £2m upgrade to Brighton mainline for better train reliability and quicker journey times; development around Gatwick and Crawley build a more resilient worker base and innovative business practices; urban innovation districts in Brighton & Hove; and embedding zero carbon and clean energy across the region’s new development and existing operations.

PRD worked with three Southwark- & Lambeth-based Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) – Better Bankside, Team London Bridge, and WeAreWaterloo – to identify opportunities for them to help their levy-paying member businesses meet their employment needs. The BIDs jointly established EmploySE1 in 2011 as a localised recruitment service for their members, but following a hiatus since 2021, wanted to redevelop it in a format that offers a more updated service provision.

We undertook a programme of desk-based research and engagement to develop a set of recommendations for the BIDs to take forward. The service has always had a local focus, and so we analysed secondary data to provide a snapshot of the local socio-economic context. This was followed by a series of engagement activities such as a survey and focus groups to understand member businesses’ current challenges and needs around recruitment, training and development, and retention, as well as one-to-one conversations with external stakeholders to learn from their experience and explore potential for partnerships in the area. This insight informed the development of recommendations for what the new EmploySE1 service might look like, and the identification of opportunities for the BIDs to pursue. After testing these ideas with the BIDs, we presented our findings and recommendations in a report.

The outcomes of this work will inform future business planning and budget allocation within the BIDs, with the aim of remaining agile and continuously evolving to meet business needs.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council commissioned a multidisciplinary team, which included PRD, to develop a Place Plan for Folkestone town centre—a critical exercise to define the future role of the town centre following a year of Covid-19 related lockdowns and ongoing challenges facing the high street.

The Place Plan addresses themes such as public realm, employment, skills and training, investment, and transport. PRD developed the socioeconomic evidence base for the Place Plan as well as recommendations to enable business growth, economic development and long-term community participation.

Guided by the views of local people, the project team developed a ‘mission-driven’ approach with six missions to structure the actions of the Place Plan and galvanise external investors around shared goals. PRD helped develop these missions and identified specific outputs and outcomes against each one to enable the council to measure success and progress.

The Place Plan provides the council with a robust evidence base upon which to bid for central government regeneration funding and the ‘mission-driven’ approach has allowed external partners to see both what the council is doing and where their own investments can make contributions to the aims of the Place Plan.

Frome Gateway is an area of industrial land close to the centre of Bristol. It has a range of uses including community and cultural, industrial, manufacturing, warehousing, and retail activity. Bristol City Council re-designated the area from a Principal Industrial and Warehousing area to an Area of Growth and Opportunity. This reflects an ambition to have a denser and broader mix of uses, including new homes, workspace, retail and leisure. A Strategic Regeneration Framework is being developed to guide this change.

To support the Strategic Regeneration Framework, Bristol City Council commissioned PRD to develop an Employment Land and Skills Strategy for the area. The strategy will provide guidance on the level and nature of future employment space, ways to support existing businesses, and employment and skills approaches which will maximise the benefits for local communities. As part of this, PRD will develop scenarios promoting different growth sectors and levels of business retention as well as test viability of these.

The Strategy is underpinned by a thorough social and economic baseline which details the community, skills and employment, and local economic context of the area. Our approach to this included quantitative data collection and analysis, policy reviews and consultation with council stakeholders.

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

We worked with Gravesham Borough Council to help direct the council’s regeneration vision up to 2040. This involved the production of an up to date social, economic and environmental evidence base to demonstrate intra-borough inequalities, particularly around health and wellbeing.

Using evidence of challenges facing local communities, we worked with officers at the council across housing, open spaces, regeneration and economic development to develop the outcomes they wish to achieve as council-wide ambitions. This Theory of Change process allowed the council to think more holistically about the roadmap to delivering change for the borough’s residents and businesses, and the outcomes of the exercise will inform the council’s future regeneration strategy and case-making over the coming decades.

The Gravesham 2040 vision document is available to read on the council’s website.

Comprising nine local authorities across the west midlands, the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) area is at the heart of the country and is one of its economic heavyweights. The region is experiencing strong growth and investment, from Levelling Up funds to HS2 to international companies taking advantage of great connectivity to the rest of the country.

GBSLEP commissioned PRD and We Made That to review workspace supply and demand throughout the LEP area, with a view to understanding gaps in the market. In particular, the study is attempting to uncover areas throughout the region where workspace demand is outpacing supply and which specific workspace typologies (e.g. manufacturing space, lab space, kitchens, offices) are most in need. Our team’s approach includes desk research on workspace throughout the region, market and sector analysis, and interviews with local authorities, workspace operators, and other stakeholders or property experts.

The work will result in two major outputs. First, a map of workspace across the region showing workspace typologies and other information will give potential tenants, operators, local authorities, and developers a new resource to aid in business and policy decisions. It will also help determine spatial gaps in workspace provision.

Second, a report with findings about what types of workspace are needed and where, analysis on the value and benefits of workspace for towns and cities, and bespoke recommendations will give the LEP and local authorities a starting point for making the case for and directing investment towards workspace.

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.

Huntingdonshire Futures is a collaborative strategy which sets out a shared vision for the future of Huntingdonshire in 2050 and a clear way forward to achieve it. ​Huntingdonshire District Council commissioned PRD to deliver a wide reaching and deliberative programme of community engagement to ensure that local people’s ideas and perspectives informed the strategy.  ​

We had more than 800 conversations about the future with local people from across the District ranging from eight to 94 years old. We used a variety of approaches, from pop-up exhibitions in high footfall areas to focus groups and classroom sessions in schools. ​

To ensure diversity of voices we collaborated with community organisations, such as food banks, older people’s groups, youth organisations, schools, and colleges. This approach meant local people were able to shape the priorities and actions for the future.

Huntingdonshire Futures can be read here (PDF).

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.

Together with Hatch, PRD supported Invest Northern Ireland to explore and develop a range of structured joint venture models to co-ordinate investment into Local Enterprise Agencies (LEAs) across Northern Ireland with the aim of delivering affordable workspace.

Working closely with Invest Northern Ireland and in consultation with a broad selection of LEAs, PRD analysed the barriers to and opportunities for delivery, then tested several new models and approaches for delivery through client consultation.

PRD proposed innovative delivery models with new, active stakeholder roles for local and national government alongside the LEAs. The models made best use of the resources, property assets, skills and powers of each party to deliver locally-tailored workspace.

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 developed an economic strategy and action plan built on an evidence base and commitments from council partners to help embed and deliver the strategy. The work began with a highly visual evidence base structured around three topics:

• Economy & people: Who is in the economy and what they are doing? (e.g. sector growth/change, resident qualifications, working from home, commercial floorspace, travel to/from Lewisham for work, younger and older population projections, economic inactivity)
• Economy & planet: How does the economy affect the planet and vice versa? (e.g. emissions hotspots, commercial stock energy performance ratings, air quality, carbon-intensive jobs, just transition, waste production and processing)
• Economy & prosperity: What do people get out of the economy? (e.g. worker and resident job quality and pay, claimants, access to town centres/amenities, access to public transport)

For each theme, we considered borough-wide data, but reviewed more granular information wherever possible to understand differences across neighbourhoods and whether any specific places would benefit from targeted actions in the strategy.

To cater to stakeholders’ differing levels of time and data confidence, we produced three variants of the evidence base: a traditional PDF of the complete evidence base, with maps, graphs, tables, and our written commentary; a shorter video version with a staff member talking through headline findings via maps and graphs; and a shorter still three-page PDF focusing on just the headline findings per theme and follow-on considerations for the strategy.

We also developed a set of themes and target geographical areas to give structure to the strategy, based on baseline findings and the council’s own economic ambitions: enterprise and creativity, opportunities for young people, decarbonisation, and prosperity—all under a banner of inclusive economy.

An engagement phase followed the baseline work, in which we held three roundtable discussions with the council and its Local Strategic Partnership to test the strategy themes, develop a vision, and learn how LSP members may be able to support the strategy through their own operations.

The action plan draws on economy-related actions from other Lewisham Council policies and incorporates new actions for the council and LSP to implement together. The strategy focuses on actions that council and LSP members can directly deliver or influence, such as through their services and contracts. However, recognising that some of the most critical challenges are outside of council control (e.g. pressing need for funding for commercial stock retrofit), we also included practical actions around partnerships and lobbying to bring forward change.

Limerick Colbert is a large regeneration site at the edge of Limerick city centre with capacity for more than 2500 homes and 112,500 m² of retail and workspace, which will support anticipated 50% population growth by 2040. For Ireland’s Land Development Agency, the site is an opportunity to set a standard for public development in the country.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary team of architects and planners, PRD supplied a socioeconomic baseline, reviewing local demographics, the current housing and employment space markets, and inward investment to inform a masterplan for Limerick Colbert.

To ensure the masterplan can be delivered on this complex, multi-landowner site, PRD co-ordinated a landowner workshop and developed a delivery strategy which sets out a proposed joint venture structure, financing options, and delivery priorities.

Liverpool City Region, comprising six Liverpool-area local authorities, commissioned PRD to establish a portfolio of sites that would benefit from Homes England funding for infill and small-scale residential development.

The Liverpool region has some of the most challenging viability constraints in the country, making development at this scale difficult. PRD identified additional obstacles, such as remediation and demolition costs, fragmented ownership, conflicting landowner ambitions, and costs of utilities/services. We consulted individual local authorities, small developers, landowners, and registered providers to understand their own barriers to delivery, the most effective ways for funding to unlock development, and ideal site types.

From this, we developed scoring criteria to help whittle down a longlist of 650 sites into a shortlist of 50 best sites that can be delivered in the shortest amount of time and with minimal intervention. We also built a ‘roadmap’ of next steps for LCR and Homes England to begin rolling out a programme of procurement and funding for the first wave of sites.

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.

In 2020, PRD and project partners We Made That worked with Thanet District Council and the Margate Town Deal Board to develop a Town Investment Plan underpinned by extensive community engagement and a widespread desire to transform Margate into a town with a strong year-round economy.

The TIP charts a 10-year course of improvements for Margate, focusing on scaling Margate’s creative economy and skills through a new Creative Land Trust; tackling deep health inequalities by providing more wellbeing amenities linked to Margate’s coast; improving public realm and connectivity; and making Margate’s nationally-renowned heritage assets more sustainable and inclusive. It is underpinned by PRD’s extensive socioeconomic baseline to ensure interventions are targeted in areas that need them most.

PRD subsequently worked with partners to lay the groundwork for the Margate Creative Land Trust (MCLT), which now has a fully operational Board of Trustees. MCLT’s purpose is to safeguard sites for creative industries, mainly through purchasing property and taking headleases with a view to subletting at discounted rates. To assist MCLT with this process, we designed a property acquisition decision framework for MCLT to assess the suitability of potential properties for their portfolio. The framework sets out how MCLT can collect and analyse information on available sites, taking into account factors such as site size, price, condition and refurbishment needs, potential number of jobs, businesses, or creative activities it can support, and the extent to which the property’s end use can align with MCLT’s vision and aims.

Frome is a thriving market town in northeast Somerset. Steeped in history, the town is home to a wealth of cultural, natural, and economic assets. Frome has a strong economic identity and is well known for its independent retail, manufacturing heritage, and creative industries.

Saxonvale is the last major development site in Frome town centre. Mendip District council purchased the site in 2018 with the aim of turning an underused part of the town into a new mixed-use community. However, the council’s original proposal sought to maximise housing, with less focus on civic and economic infrastructure. Believing that a better alternative is possible, Mayday Saxonvale has prepared an alternative masterplan for the site. Mayday Saxonvale is a not-for-profit social enterprise incorporated as a company limited by guarantee with the sole objective of developing the Saxonvale site for the social, community, and economic benefit of Frome. Mayday’s alternative approach takes a community-led, balanced approach to development at Saxonvale, marrying the homes that Frome needs with the community and commercial space integral to prosperous and sustainable place.

To support Mayday’s alternative planning application, PRD produced an Economic Manifesto for the Saxonvale site. Setting out a clear case for change, the Manifesto proposed interventions to embed a new approach to the economy, enabling Frome to become greener, fairer, and more resilient by design. The Manifesto is underpinned by national and international best practice case studies, embedding a more inclusive economy approach from the outset.

The Manifesto has supported Mayday’s alternative planning application for the site and has been endorsed by a range of local partners including Frome Town Council.

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.

Working alongside and Atkins, Oxford City Council, Oxford County Council, Network Rail, and the Oxfordshire LEP, PRD is providing strategic property development, value capture, viability and delivery advice to inform and guide the updated masterplan for this globally important city gateway.

Drawing on our experience of harnessing infrastructure investment to drive wider benefits, our economic work in Oxford and our strong background in formulating delivery options and viability assessments, we are establishing a business case for adjacent station redevelopment and bringing delivery certainty to the project.

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.

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.

Sheffield City Council, with support from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), commissioned PRD to assess social and economic benefits of proposed extensions to its Supertram network for the city centre and city-region. The first extension would involve repurposing underused and disused railway infrastructure to connect Stocksbridge and Chesterfield to Sheffield city centre, covering a distance of 40 km and incorporating 17 stops. The other extensions would involve new track to extend existing tram infrastructure in the city centre, connecting Royal Hallamshire Hospital and the southern edge of the city centre through six new stops.

We started by developing a tram extension atlas which reviewed data relating to the communities and land uses falling within an 800m radius of each proposed stop. Data included house sale and rent prices, employment and income deprivation, risk of food poverty, land use, site allocations, local amenities, population density, and population characteristics. The atlas allowed us to identify development opportunities along the proposed routes and estimate what the tram extensions could bring in terms of new businesses, jobs, housing, and amenities. We also developed an individual one-page ‘spotlight’ report for each proposed tram stop to highlight local development opportunities and outcomes.

Our analysis estimated that the tram extensions, taken together, could spur 22,000 homes—almost 2/3 of Sheffield’s housing target—71 hectares of employment space for 22,000 jobs, around 100,000 additional residents having access to Sheffield’s Supertram network, and £171m in council tax and business rates revenue.

As a follow-up, SYMCA commissioned PRD to apply the same methodology to a potential tram extension from Rotherham to Killamarsh, which would pass through the region’s important Advanced Manufacturing Park.

Excerpt from our Sheffield tram extensions atlas

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.

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

As part of the UK Shared Propserity Fund, Thanet District Council wanted to support its voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector by creating opportunities for networking, training and funding support as well as working with the sector to build capacity and promote collaboration.  The council commissioned PRD to create a database of VCSE organisations in Thanet and understanding their challenges and aspirations.

We collected detailed information from hundreds of organisations across the district, focusing on smaller organisations that serve hyperlocal communities. We surveyed 224 organisations, which revealed that recruiting new volunteers and investing in volunteers are among the top priorities for VCSE organisations. We also held a workshop with sector representatives to inform the training and capacity-building support the council could offer.

We then ran ‘The Big Ideas Conversation’, a series of engagement events throughout the district focusing on how to build community capacity for volunteering, empower people through volunteering, and rethink how the VCSE sector should position and offer volunteering opportunities.

The final report detailed the findings from the research and recommendations to tie into the council’s different UKSPF workstreams over the next two years, specifically, the Community Champions Programme and People and Skills: Enrichment and Volunteering Activities.  

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.

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.

Be First commissioned PRD to develop a delivery strategy for Thames Road, an area of former Strategic Industrial Land that has been de-designated and allocated for mixed-use regeneration. The area is projected to deliver 3,000 to 4,000 homes in the future, alongside a large amount of industrial space, presenting delivery challenges.

We helped Be First think about how it can use its land holdings to leverage value and influence the delivery of adjacent parcels in order to realise the regeneration vision at Thames Road. We undertook a thorough review of the Council’s property portfolio at Thames Road, alongside high-level capacity modelling and a review of industrial co-location and intensification precedents.

PRD produced a high-level delivery strategy and follow-on commercial advice around the viability of industrial intensification to shape Be First’s thinking. The client recommissioned us to do a follow-on piece of work engaging with businesses and communities at Thames Road to understand their needs and future aspirations to inform thinking around decant and retention/relocation.

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.

UN_BIASED was an exciting and innovative research and engagement project looking to produce actionable recommendations to move towards a truly inclusive economy, with a focus on women’s employment and opportunities. Central District Alliance Business Improvement District, a Central London BID with more than 160,000 employees and 17,000 businesses, including multi-national organisations, in partnership with the London Communication Agency (LCA), commissioned PRD and our collaborators to deliver a programme of desktop research and engagement to shape this project.  ​

Fundamental to the success of UN_BIASED was a foundation in robust quantitative and qualitative research that can enable an understanding of the issues, challenges, and barriers to change. This sits alongside insights from local employees and employers, and learning from best practice around the world, to identify realistic actions that will deliver an inclusive economy. ​

Our work included taking over a local coffee shop for a drop in a chat session, pop up engagement at careers fairs, focus groups, stakeholder interviews and surveys. We also hosted a co-design workshop to create recommendations for the future. Our processes ensured the voices of people working in Central London played a role in designing recommendations for change.

More information about the project is available on the UN_BIASED website and the report can be downloaded here.

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.

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.

Worcester Shrub Hill Station is a Grade-II listed building nearing dereliction through lack of investment. The station surroundings are similarly disinvested and poorly signposted to the nearby city centre. Early business cases and cost-benefit ratios for redeveloping the station did not support investment.

PRD is working on a long-term project with Worcestershire County Council to develop a feasible strategy for station investment and development. Following extensive viability testing, socioeconomic profiling, visioning workshops, and reviewing funding and land value capture models, we advised WCC that unlocking wider regeneration around the station and land value capture would make investment viable.

This has enabled WCC to buy 4.5 hectares of land around the station with a view to catalysing 1000 homes, 7000 jobs, and 102,000 m² of new commercial space for Shrub Hill over the next 30 years, with flexibility built in so development can respond to market changes. WCC themselves will act as an anchor tenant, moving from an out-of-town office park back to the heart of the city and repurposing an underused asset.

We are now supporting WCC and Worcester City Council to form a development plan for the 4.5 ha plus surrounding sites under other ownership. This involves identifying reusable assets, deliverable parcels throughout the site, phasing options, and potential partners.

PRD supported London and Continental Railways and Worthing Borough Council in designing, structuring and launching an innovative public-public partnership focused on development and regeneration.

The partnership will initially focus on promoting and realising development on several publicly owned but previously stalled town centre sites. Development of the sites will help realise the council’s vision for the town centre.

We subsequently provided further development management and commercial support to mobilise the partnership.