Planning Delivery
Our industry leading in-house design team creates thoughtful, creative masterplans that transform land into sustainable, high quality new places to live, work and rest.
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Led by Charlotte Lewis, Group Design Director, our team comprises Chartered Architects and Urban Designers with proven track records in volume housebuilding and mixed-use development. We are members of The Royal Institute of British Architects, the Urban Design Group and the Future Homes Hub.
We aim to:
Improve the quality of life for people who live and work in the new places we create.
Establish sustainable neighbourhoods which help people to
live healthy, happy lives, in harmony with nature.
Creating positive impact and value for the future, balancing
everyday environmental and social needs of our communities.
Raise standards in urban design and placemaking, leaving
positive, long-lasting legacies for landowners.
What does the Urban Design team do?
The design team provides a cradle-to-grave level of support across a project lifecycle.
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This involves:
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Design visioning;
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​Assessing a site’s development potential
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Comprehensive due diligence with our in-house technical team
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Co-design and engagement with local communities, key stakeholders and Councils
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Preparation of masterplans, detailed site layouts and design codes
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Monitoring outline planning applications
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Audit of housebuilder bid layouts​
How will the Urban Design Team benefit the sale of my land?
Our design team supports our consultant team by overseeing the
preparation of an outline planning application. This ensures that
our proposals:
Deliver quality and make efficient use of land;
Are market facing and drive value;
Optimise technical solutions and de-risk sites;
Are robust, deliverable and translate well into detailed
planning applications.
We audit bid masterplans to ensure compliance and identify risks and opportunities, this often leads to greater quantums of development and stronger offers.
By providing landowners, housebuilders and developers with confidence in deliverability, our method leads to a competitive sales process, enabling housebuilders to refine their site assumptions and reduce risk, minimising unnecessary costs. Our approach ultimately results in clean, unconditional bids with transparent due diligence, often with higher values and a smoother sales process.
How does the masterplanning process work?
Masterplanning is a process used to create a long-term vision for an area, integrating architecture, infrastructure, environmental considerations and community needs. The process starts with rigorous due diligence, which establishes initial designs and gauges development potential.
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Early engagement with local communities, stakeholders and Councils helps to shape designs into outline planning submissions, taking into account detailed site surveys, local policies and design standards.
Additionally, a design code can be prepared to support an outline masterplan, providing further detail on design quality and placemaking.
What happens to the
masterplan?
An approved, outline masterplan serves as a strategic framework for development, determining scale, type and density, as well as infrastructure and community features. When required, a supporting design code can add further detail.
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The masterplan also sets the agreed vision for the site and a subsequent detailed or Reserved Matters application will be expected to demonstrate how this is achieved.
Can I input on the process
and vision
Absolutely. Stakeholder engagement is central to our approach. We work closely with landowners, Councils and local communities to ensure our masterplan designs achieve design quality and leave positive, lasting legacies.
“It’s the attention to detail that really makes them stand out. They put a lot of effort into the technical and design work which helps to drive the best value out of the sites.”
Trevor Wells, Land agent, Wells McFarlane