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

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

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

Delivering residential developments, particularly affordable housing, in the UK has never been more challenging.

Economic pressures, including high interest rates, inflation and reduced government funding, make developments less viable, while uncertain market conditions further weaken investor confidence. Planning delays due to local authority resource constraints, fire safety legislation and evolving policies on affordable housing create uncertainty and prolonged project timelines. The need for optimising your opportunity and its delivery from first concept to building handover has never been more acute. This is where the Ikon team of residential specialists can help.

Strategic Development Advice

Our expertise has been utilised by private sector clients, Registered Providers (RP’s) and Local Authorities (LA’s) delivering their own developments or seeking a more involved development role. We help clients with a full range of development services, from scheme feasibility, value optimisation and viability, delivery structure, negotiations and due diligence, development management and s106 acquisitions and disposals. 

Financial Viability

Here, commercial acumen enables core assumptions to be sensibly pitched, a range of sensitivities to be considered and emerging cashflows assessed from a funder’s perspective. Financial modelling and business case assessment can be dealt with ‘under one roof’ meaning a joined-up approach to working with clients bringing wider efficiency, greater understanding and increased ability to improve viability.

Project Delivery

We provide expert project delivery services across Project Management, Employer’s Agent, Joint Venture Advisory, and Technical Advisory. Our team specialises in multi-phase regeneration, Build to Rent (BtR), market sale, senior living and affordable housing, successfully delivering major schemes like Greenwich Peninsula and Chobham Manor, as well as significant regeneration programmes across several local authorities, including Camden, Havering, Wandsworth and Harrow.

Working across the public, private and third sectors, we manage projects from small developments to large-scale urban regeneration. With deep market insight, we apply key performance metrics - spanning design, programme management, pre-manufactured value, ESG and social value across all tenure and build types. By integrating these with broader industry data, and our innovative systems and processes, we continuously drive project efficiency while ensuring homes are safe, high-quality and energy efficient.   

Our core services include:

• S106 Disposal
• Financial Viability assessments
• Scheme Optimisation
• Options evaluation and testing
• Procurement (Consultants/Contractors/Developers)
• Development solutions
• Project Management (RIBA 0-7)
• Employer’s Agent (RIBA 3-7)
• Development and Regeneration consultancy
• Affordable Housing
• Project Programming
• Team Workshop facilitation
• Defect Management (post PC)