WHAT WE DO

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Infrastructure planning and viability

Our focus has always been on the practical question of how planned development will get serviced, funded and delivered. We started looking at viability and density with the early Cambridge Sub Region studies (2001), Our review of delivery in Kent Thameside for ODPM (2003) spelt out the need for comprehensive infrastructure planning in the area. We carried out a series of ground breaking studies for the South East of England Assembly (2005-7) looking at alternative methods of funding infrastructure including the proposed Planning Gain Supplement and we helped the Southeast and Southwest get consent for regional infrastructure funds in 2007. This was followed by a long, more detailed, study for the East of England. The bodies that sponsored this work may have disappeared, but the challenges have not.

Meanwhile, government policy changed to make infrastructure planning a requirement for local plans. With SKM Colin Buchanan , we went on to work for Buckinghamshire and Aylesbury Vale, Surrey, Stafford, Northumberland, Thurrock and most recently Worcestershire. At the same time, we spread the message through seminars for the Planning Advisory Service, Planning Officers Society, Homes and Communities Agency and others. As the recession hit and viability became much more of an issue, preparations for the new Community Infrastructure Levy have started to dominate our work.

We have also kept a keen interest in infrastructure delivery and funding, especially. Initially we worked on a multidisciplinary project on underground interchanges for Highways Agency and later on the viability of Crossrail and designing the developer contributions tariff. We have also been involved with the preparation of various road schemes like the A5-M1 link at Dunstable.

Economic Development

We have carried out a number of conventional economic development assignments. We were part of a team advising London Councils on the economic forecasts underpinning the London Plan and we worked on the baseline studies for the regeneration of central Hull. We advised East Oxford Action on the feasibility of an incubator centre. Our submissions to government for Local Delivery Vehicles always had an economic analysis in them. However, we have become increasing critical of the neoclassical economic approach to development which become bogged down in numerical analysis and often produced unreal results. We prefer to apply common sense. In 2003 we wrote a comparison of US and European policy for SMEs which paved the way for the European Small Business Act and included a critique of alternative economic theories approaches (such as behavioural economics) that could be helpful. We researched the need for small business space in Thames Gateway and pointed out that the London Plan assumed it could all be accommodated in Canary Wharf, which is physically unsuited to small units. Our paper on retail development was one of the first to identify over supply of retail units as an issue.

Policy

We first become involved in European state aid policy when asked by the RICS to write a guide to some gap- funding programmes drawn up by the UK government to help developers. We finished up revising them and Dominic Williams acted as special adviser to a Select Committee inquiry into the future of gap funding in the UK. In parallel, we have campaigned for reform of utilities regulation to make physical development easier and for the repeal of s123 Local Government Act 1972, a piece of legislation that prevents local authorities selling land at below market value, even for charitable purposes. This campaign developed from two pieces of work in Wales, one contributing towards a Welsh Design Guide. Through our work for institutions we are usually well informed about current policy issues and have been able to influence their development.

The Growth Agenda and Local Delivery Vehicles

Over a period of 10 years, we helped get approval for, set up and/or planned or worked with around 10-15 local delivery vehicles. In the east of England, we were involved in Peterborough, Lowestoft /Great Yarmouth, Southend, Harlow, Greater Norwich, Haven Gateway, Luton-Dunstable-Houghton Regis and Kings Lynn. Nigel Smith was in charge of Leicester, Swindon and Camborne Pool Redruth as well as Doncaster 3D. We also worked directly for Kent Thameside, Gloucester, Aylesbury Vale, Milton Keynes South Midlands as well as recruiting for several more. In 2009-10 we carried out an evaluation for EEDA (itself now being abolished) that led to most of the east of England LDVs being wound up, because of funding cuts. Undoubtedly, the LDV movement got bogged down in the planning system and in process, and the boom ended before it could deliver what it promised. However, it did give a momentum to the wider growth agenda that is badly needed to solve the current housing crisis.

Some other work

At Hewdon, we are proud of the diversity of work we have taken on. We have worked from Northumberland to Cornwall and from Lowestoft to Swansea. Some of our work is relatively orthodox. Sometimes we advise clients on sensitive issues such as how to position themselves in a developing market or in relation to a developing local plan. We have carried peer reviews of masterplans and architectural designs.

We have also been willing to tackle some very unusual jobs. One of our first jobs was a multidisciplinary study for the Highways Agency called “The Use of Underground Space for Intermodal Interchanges”. It involved inventing a variety of concepts for interchanges (with virtual reality animations) and putting them through a transport economics appraisal.

We led a team developing a concept for a fish restaurant in Hartlepool, with a chef selected though a TV reality show. The Hartlepool project was overtaken by more ambitious proposals for redevelopment, but the concept mutated into a TV vehicle for Gordon Ramsey.