Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has recruited Richard Shepherd as a Director in its Planning, Regeneration + Infrastructure (PR+I) team. Richard joins LSH from Nexus Planning, prior to which he was at WYG.

Based out of LSH’s new Manchester office, Richard will be part of PR+I’s national Town Centre and Economic Regeneration team led by Dr Steve Norris.

Richard is highly experienced in advising both public and private sector clients on retail, leisure and other commercial developments. He leads on the delivery of retail and town centre studies, advising local authorities on future development requirements and strategies for regenerating town centres. A chartered town planner, he also regularly provides advice to local planning authorities in terms of applications’ compliance with national retail planning policy.

For the private sector, Richard advises on the delivery of large-scale retail and town centre developments. Additionally, he is particularly experienced in undertaking sequential and retail impact assessments as well as being an experienced Expert Witness. He is also a Planning Expert Adviser to the Government’s High Street Task Force.

Dr Steve Norris, Executive Director and National Head of PR+I at LSH said: “These are challenging times for the UK’s high streets and town centres, but we are beginning to see local authorities and the private sector working together to take decisive action. This means growing demand for planning and regeneration-led consultancy services across the country, and the addition of Richard to our UK-wide team offering gives us additional strength in depth and detailed regional knowledge in a key strategic area”.

Richard Shepherd commented upon his appointment: “I am thrilled to have joined Lambert Smith Hampton and look forward to working with our clients and supporting them in their town centre and economic regeneration efforts. I will focus on growing our service offering across the north and wider UK and strengthening our existing client relationships”.

Paul Shuker, Director of PR+I in the North West at LSH added, “Richard’s arrival at LSH further strengthens our team’s experience in the North and builds on our fantastic reputation of providing specialist planning and regeneration advice across sectors. It underpins our ability to provide robust and reliable solutions to our clients in an ever changing built environment sector”.