The UK’s planning system can be the largest single obstacle to development and regeneration; we know how to overcome it. Our team has a proven track record of helping projects to effortlessly navigate the system.

Our planning teams are highly experienced in each aspect of the planning strategy and process to deliver practicable and viable schemes.  We recognise the need to provide our clients with clear, up to date, discerning advice, in addition to effective development solutions and strategies that minimise exposure to costs and risk. The prevailing planning policy can be complex, built from years of additional layers of government policy. Planning and masterplanning a scheme have also grown in complexity.  Social value is a growing concern as financial value and the pandemic has drastically changed how we view and use real estate.

Our planning teams bring together decades of knowledge and experience, with the ability to bring in experts from LSH’s wider business. Our teams across the UK are known for providing many well-known developers, investors, landowners, housebuilders, registered providers, and the public sector with the advice needed at each stage of the project lifecycle. Clients also range from the the NHS to Homes England, the BBC, HS2 and charities and charitable trusts including the English National Opera and the Institute of Cancer Research. Large or small, urban or rural, we know how to plan, negotiate and ensure you can deliver your project. 

Our core services include:

• Planning feasibility studies
• Preparing and managing major planning applications
• Site search and identification
• Planning policy and site appraisals
• Local Plan strategic land promotion and monitoring
• Stakeholder engagement and public consultation
• Town centre, retail and leisure (sequential and impact) assessments
• Hotel needs and impact assessments
• Economic and employment impact assessments
• Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy negotiations
• Expert witness advice for planning appeals, compulsory purchase order, and judicial reviews

Our clients are successfully place-making and place-shaping. We support our clients at every step in the development process from feasibility to delivery.

Our overriding objective is to deliver services which will secure the optimum value from our clients’ property. Our clients’ key objectives drive our delivery of best value whether they are operational, occupational, or transactional.

Working closely with market-facing experts active in all key property sectors, we provide clear recommendations. Our more complex projects will involve formulating delivery solutions which may comprise joint venture, development partnership or conditional land sale. Our property solutions address public sector procurement, understanding of risk and an appreciation of community benefits including Social Value outcomes.

Our team can advise on all key stages from project feasibility through to development management. An essential part of our service is being able to draw on public and private sector experience taken from locally based advisors operating across the UK.

Our core services include:

• Development and regeneration consultancy
• Scheme optimisation
• Property rationalisation and space utilisation
• Development solutions
• Options evaluation and testing
• Financial viability assessments
• Red Book and RTB valuations
• Funding and financing strategies
• Land assembly, property acquisitions and disposals
• Strategic land promotion

The use of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) is highly complex, involving delicate negotiations and precise legal knowledge. Our team has the technical understanding and expertise to provide comprehensive advice for scheme promoters and property owners and occupiers.

Largescale infrastructure projects and town centre regeneration have become vital, bringing the management of CPOs into the spotlight. All implications must be understood thoroughly, while delays can be costly. If not managed efficiently, they derail public faith in a scheme, unsettle funding partners and throw projected timeframes into disarray.

Our solutions-focused team of land assembly and compulsory purchase experts have a wealth of experience advising the UK’s largest acquiring authorities as well as a range of affected property owners and occupiers. Our ability to provide legally-sound advice and financial projections is matched by our empathetic approach to land owners, making us a trusted advisor in this specialist discipline. Whether working with HS2, Thames Tideway Tunnel or various Local Authorities, we use our technical expertise to negotiate a responsible, fair and successful outcome.

Our core services include:

• Advising on infrastructure and regeneration for infrastructure providers and property owners/occupiers
• Advising on the implications and effect of a scheme on property value and acquisition under CPO
• Preparing property cost estimates and advising on land assembly
• Advising on making objections and appearing at Public Inquiry
• Valuation and preparation of compensation claims
• Negotiating with acquiring authorities and claimants
• Expert witness advice

More than ever, the UK is under pressure to deliver social and economic growth to meet needs in the right places. We can help build the strong evidence base that drives this through the planning system.

To successfully plan and deliver for housing and economic growth requires an understanding of the bigger picture. To say the least, this could involve Local Plan evidence, a housing needs analysis, an understanding of land supply and economic forecasting and jobs growth. Whether with public or private sector clients, releasing development often means untangling a web of complex needs that continue to evolve.

Our team can analyse and advise on the most complex challenges relating to large-scale development and regeneration. We have a strong track record of delivering robust evidence, balancing commercial viability with social benefits and public sector priorities to create a landscape that is fit for the future. Our clients range from public sector bodies across England and Wales including Local Planning Authorities and the NHS, housebuilders, developers and landowners. We work seamlessly with partners and other experts within LSH to find the right solution.

Our core services include:

• Advise on Local Plans
• Advise on planning applications and planning appeals
• Housing needs, housing mix and 5-year housing land supply
• Employment needs and employment land supply
• Strategic Site search and promotion
• Economic benefit assessment
• Socio-economic and environmental impact assessment
• Demographic assessments
• Expert witness

Public sector organisations are facing a perfect storm of reduced budgets and a greater need for their services. What they need is a trusted partner to take responsibility for property management.

Many public sector organisations have large property portfolios – local government, blue light services, schools. While they focus on delivering essential services, they rarely have capacity to employ a sufficient property management team in-house, leading to a risk that properties are inadequately maintained or cannot deliver social value.

Our team is a trusted advisor to many of the UK’s leading public sector organisations. We can advise on acquisitions and disposals, asset management and expansion plans. Our experts slot in wherever our clients need them, offering a full cradle-to-grave service. As proven by our track record with the likes of Essex County Council, we have the scale and breadth to manage even the largest portfolios. We take away property pressures from our clients, so they can excel at delivering valuable services.

Our core services include:

• Agency - disposals and acquisitions
• Online Auctions
• Valuations
• Asset Advisory
• Development Consultancy
• Planning Consultancy
• Schools’ advice
• Lease Advisory
• Property / Estate Management
• Treasury Functions
• Business Rates Appeals & Management
• Building Consultancy Services
• Telecoms

The pandemic has fundamentally altered the transport and infrastructure landscape. Our specialist team brings the decades of experience needed to rebuild the backbone the UK needs today.

From aviation to roads and rail, no element of the UK’s transport infrastructure was left untouched by the pandemic. Bring sustainability into the equation and the drive for net zero carbon, and the entire country is facing monumental challenges. The electric vehicle revolution and renewables drive require enormous infrastructure gains, while city centre stations can be redeveloped to better meet the needs of society and deliver services.

The services of our established transport and infrastructure team span the full sector. We advise the likes of HS2, Virgin Atlantic, Northern Rail, and South Western Railway on acquisitions, redevelopment and estate management. Add in the experience of the wider LSH team and we have unrivalled understanding of how to meet the challenges the sector faces today.

Our services include:

• Advising private sector aviation and rail bodies
• Advising transport operators, PTEs and government bodies
• Infrastructure & Regeneration Projects
• Station Gateway Schemes
• Estate management (including agency, property, management, lease advisory, treasury services)
• Project management
• Programme management
• Contract and performance management
• Contract administration
• Strategic client relationship management

Download our Stations Gateway Brochure here

Creating great places and spaces for people of all ages to live, work and play doesn’t happen by accident. It requires distilling all the moving parts to understand what people need.

It takes knowledge and experience to design high-quality, beautifully-designed yet commercial viable built environments that last. Knitting together ‘the art of the possible’ with the ‘craft of the practical’ takes a measured approach,  backed up by transparent research and an open mind.

Our in-house team of masterplanners are urban design specialists. They work side-by-side with the wider LSH team, bringing in specific knowledge of development, planning and regeneration to create a holistic picture of a scheme’s potential. They help clients to see the opportunities within existing towns and neighbourhoods, as well as the potential of regeneration areas, urban extensions and new residential settlements. 

Our core services include:

• Urban design
• Masterplanning
• Outline planning applications
• Estate regeneration
• Town centre regeneration
• 3D massing and sketching
• Design audits
• Area action plans and development frameworks
• Supplementary planning documents
• Feasibility and capacity studies
• Design codes, briefs and guides
• Design and access statements
• Planning appeals

Our towns are facing unprecedented challenges to their future vitality and viability. The drivers of change are bigger and more fundamental than we have ever witnessed before, and the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped our nation and our lives has further accelerated these trends.

REGENERATE. REPURPOSE. REVITALISE.

Our multi-disciplinary team of town planners, development & investment consultants, urban designers & masterplanners, regeneration experts, economists and property consultants are advising on the recovery and transformation of towns, shopping centres and high streets across the UK.

Working in partnership with the public and private sectors, together with key stakeholders, we have a strong track record of delivering successful regeneration and mixed-use development projects that have helped to unlock the social, economic and environmental value of places for the benefit of all.

We can help navigate you through the regeneration lifecycle: from initial strategic visioning and viability testing to planning and delivery and beyond; we will help you breath new life into your centres, estates and assets.

Find out more here