Diversity & Inclusion

Creating environments that foster the evolving needs of all means that diversity is at the very centre of urban planning. Diversity is critical for the understanding of, and successful collaboration with, the wider community, stakeholders, clients and professional teams. We aim to ensure our decisions are informed by our teams’ varied life experiences and backgrounds. Input from every colleague at all stages of their career is actively sought out.

Our team of 46 is naturally egalitarian and very evenly split in terms of gender, employing professionals from right across the globe. In collaboration with the RTPI and London South Bank University, we are one of the first planning consultancies in the UK to launch an Apprenticeship Scheme which is geared around opening up opportunities to make our sector more accessible for all.

We have several initiatives empowering the entire team to positively shape the business.  Key to this is a working groups series covering key issues like social value, diversity, quality, inclusion, sustainability and wellbeing. Each group is a diverse mix of our people from all five offices, meeting regularly to drive improvement in the areas they’re passionate about beyond their day-to-day projects.

The whole team is actively involved in our social value programme which provides meaningful support to causes close to our heart. Each office works with a local homelessness charity (Mustard Tree, Launchpad, Thames Reach and Caring in Bristol).  Support is varied, anything from pro bono planning advice, foodbank donations and allotment digs to raise funds.

We recognise, however we – and the sector – are not as diverse as we must become.  We’re mindfully taking steps to ensure the team is more closely reflective of the communities within which we work.

We’re always open to feedback and ideas on how we can accelerate the change.