We help plan and deliver physical and economic development.

Most consultants define themselves by their technical discipline or by the process they manage, but Hewdon has always defined itself by its objective –we want to get on with it, and if there is a problem, we want to sort it out. We have a focus on delivery and we have a history of successful campaigning on issues that are of general importance. We also put an emphasis on good communication, written and spoken. We use plain English, we dislike jargon and we are happy to engage with people who are not technical specialists.

Our work is always subject to changes in politics, economics, the markets and events that sometimes happen with bewildering speed. When the world changes, we change what we do.

The biggest obstacle to housing delivery has been infrastructure funding and provision, so we started trying to sort this out from 2003 onwards. First, (partly because of our efforts) infrastructure planning now underpins the local planning system, so we have been promoting best practice for planners, as well as carrying out infrastructure studies ourselves. We have helped improve the use of developers’ contributions, either through the s106 system or the new Community Infrastructure Levy and we now know more about government funding than most people would regard as healthy.

Housing apart, it is clear that there will be relatively little property development in the next few years, so we have recently gone back to our roots in regeneration and economic development, looking at how best to promote local growth again. Our 2009 polemic on retail development, initially greeted with horrified incredulity by professionals, is now the new orthodoxy and we are committed to enabling SME-friendly local economic growth.

Dominic Williams, the Director of Hewdon, is a chartered surveyor with a background in private sector property development and corporate finance. At Hewdon, he has been a special adviser to a House of Commons Select Committee inquiry, a member of the expert panel on Cities and Regions for CLG and an RICS expert adviser to the Planning Service. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Local Economy magazine and often represents the Federation of Small Businesses on planning matters.

Through his relationship with Rockpools he has acted as technical assessor for more than 60 public appointments.

Nigel Smith, the co-founder of Hewdon in 2001, developed a career as an interim manager, setting up Urban Regeneration Companies in Leicester, Swindon, Camborne-Pool-Redruth and a public private vehicle in Doncaster. He spent three years as project director for the relocation of the University of Arts London to Kings Cross. After a last year chairing design review panels for Inspire East, Nigel retired from Hewdon in 2011 but can still be contacted through his Hewdon email address ns@hewdon.com.