We have a national reputation for research, writing, facilitation and critical thinking. Contact us to see how we can help you.
Here are some examples of recent work:
- Our work on urban green spaces, building on our 2012 report, Grey Places Need Green Spaces (available to download here), has developed through Julian’s involvement in the Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature project at the University of Sheffield and an evaluation of the Tesco Bags of Help initiative with Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). Julian is also part of the team evaluating the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Parks for People and Future Parks programmes, along with colleagues at SHU and the University of Sheffield. Julian has also recently teamed up with SHU and Shared Assets to work with the Health Foundation on the health impacts of green, blue and other public spaces.
- Our input into Mary Portas’s review of the high streets was described as ‘inspirational and invaluable’. Julian’s book, How to Save Our Town Centres, was published in 2015. In 2018 Julian gave evidence to the Parliamentary inquiry on High Streets and Town Centres in 2030. Most recently he has been helping Sheffield City Council with its successful expression of interest for the Future High Streets Fund, which is now being developed for full review in 2020.
- We continue to forge new thinking on urban regeneration in the UK, most recently through our work on community self-help with Local Trust. A new book, co-edited with Professor Rowland Atkinson at Sheffield University, will set an agenda for urban policy and will be published by Anthem Press in 2020. Our evidence to the UK Parliament’s inquiry into regeneration can be read on the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s website. We developed these ideas further in Responsible Recovery, a report from the think tank ResPublica. In 2019 Julian worked on a rapid evidence review of regeneration evaluations with the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research for the National Housing Federation.
- We worked with the Cedar Foundation in Tanzania, looking at how ideas of placemaking and asset based community development can adapted in the context of communities on the edge of the country’s second most populous city, Mwanza. You can read more here.
- We contribute to events and conferences in the UK and internationally. Julian was the keynote speaker at the Mainstreet Australia conference in Melbourne, and at the international conference on Cities, People and Places hosted by the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. In the UK he has spoken at a wide range of events, including the Belfast State of the City event, and Sheffield’s Off the Shelf festival of words.
- We worked with Papworth Research and Consultancy Ltd to evaluate the first year of Hampshire’s Local Welfare Assistance scheme, identifying successes and challenges and making recommendations about its future direction. We teamed up with them again in 2015 to research the food bank network in Hampshire.
- We worked with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies on a research project in Belfast to identify the contribution to the city of its ‘anchor institutions’ – hospitals, universities, airports and port.
- We worked with the Bill Sargent Trust to find ways of achieving community benefits from the sale of surplus military land. The final policy white paper, Forces for Good, is available here. Our original research report brings together a literature review and recommendations to improve the disposal of military land in future.
- Julian acted as a rapporteur for a series of events on community assets for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. You can download a summary of the event series here.
- We helped The Mersey Forest respond to government reviews of woodlands and forestry. We also prepared a briefing to inform a round table discussion to inform the review process.
- We worked with colleagues at Winning Moves and Beam to deliver the Regeneration Academy placemaking training scheme for Bradford Council – a major project training up more than 400 staff in placemaking, project management and leadership.
These are just a few examples of our work – please get in touch if we can help you.