Urban Forecast

In this episode we speak to Kunle Barker; Property & Construction Expert, Writer, & Broadcaster. Kunle is the star of Channel 4’s Project Home with Nick Grimshaw, ITV’s ‘Save Money: My Beautiful Green Home and has a regular column in Architects Journal. Kunle has 20 years of experience in the Construction and Design industry, having delivered thousands of residential refurbishments, 120 Sc...

In this episode we speak to Ghislaine Halpenny; Director of ESG and Corporate Affairs at Regal London. Ghislaine has over a decade’s experience at the British Property Federation leading their external affairs work and managing reputational challenges for the wider commercial real estate industry. In her current role, she oversees Regal London’s broad ESG strategy and all corporate communications...

In this episode, we speak to Alice Holden, Farmitect at Sitopia Farm, an Urban Farm in Barking and Dagenham. Alice has over 20 years of experience working on organic farms of various types and scales. Since 2012, she has been Head Grower at Growing Communities’ Dagenham farm and led the transformation of a disused ex-council nursery site into a productive peri-urban, organic, urban farm. Her work...

In this episode we speak to Nick Bowes; Chief Executive of the Centre for London. Nick has over 20 years of experience in public affairs, policy, campaigning and politics at senior level in trade associations, government, professional societies and political parties. He was Sadiq Khan's Director of Policy at City Hall for five years and has a long track record of delivery in large organisatio...

In our 7th episode of Season 2, we sat down with Claire Bennie, Director at Municipal and part of Sadiq Khan’s Mayor’s Design Advocate team. Claire holds numerous high profile roles in the industry including Chair of the Design Advisory Group for LB Enfield’s Meridian Water scheme and Design Review Panels at Brighton & Hove and Kingston councils. Claire’s experience as an Architect, and then a...

In this episode we speak to Steve Gilchrist; Project Director at Grosvenor; Author of Steve’s Newsletter and organiser of the Circular Steel Event, which focuses on the current challenges and possible solutions to steel reuse. Steve specialises in sustainability and innovation and his experience in Contracting, Civil/Structural Design and Project Management make him another great guest to talk abo...

In this episode we speak to Steve Smith; Founder and Director of Urban Narrative, which he set up following extensive experience working on large-scale master planning projects across the globe. Urban Narrative specialise in the very first part of a project, which Steve believes is the most important stage; setting the brief.  Steve is an expert in urban research and interactive design and his exp...

In this episode we speak to Mark Hallett; Development Director at Igloo Regeneration, Board of Pobl Group and Non-Executive Director of the Design Commission of Wales. Mark has an incredible track record in housing, development and architecture. His extensive experience in delivering Large Scale Urban Regeneration projects that act as catalysts for wider redevelopment means that he is the perfect...

2022 is the year where Co-living has really established itself as the new kid on the Purpose-Built Rental Sector block. With the end of Covid, and the recognition of the Sector within the New London Plan, investors are looking to Co-living to give them returns that a flat residential market is failing to do. Much of the charge is being led by Halcyon, who spun out of The Collective and have delive...

In this episode we speak to Gaia Vince; Guardian journalist, Scientist, Author, and Broadcaster. Gaia spent 2 years researching her first book, Adventures in the Anthropocene’ by travelling, largely in the global South, witnessing the impact humanity has had on the world. In her latest book ‘Nomad Century’, Gaia sets out how we need to start planning now for the impact of climate change on global...

Dan Jestico is Director of Sustainable Design at Savills Earth. In this fascinating episode, Dan shares his key recommendations for how the built environment sector can work towards a net zero world. 

Euan Mills is the Head of Digital Planning at Connected Places Catapult where he co-leads a programme of work looking at how new technology can help us plan cities better. In this episode Euan shares his insights on how digital principals will change the way our cities are planned, built and experienced. 

Today’s guest is Colin Wilson, Head of the Old Kent Road Regeneration team. Colin was working in a Local Aurthority planning department in the 1990s, and was about to give up on planning- he was sick of the adversarial relationship between developers and planners. That was when he applied to the newly formed GLA. During his time at the GLA, Colin worked on the major ‘plan-led’ renegration projects...

Today’s guest is Nicole Bremner, director of East Eight - a boutique development company specialising in high quality, design-led homes. However, this introduction does not fully describe Nicole - she is also an entrepreneur, author, mother, and a pioneer in the power of social media to scale up a property business. In this podcast we cover all of these topics and more, including our first  meetin...

It is well known that the traditional role of the Estate Agent is vanishing, and James Turford is one of those embracing this change. James is one of the co-founders of Nested, an estate agency with a difference - as well as selling the property, they will give the vendor a sizeable advance to allow them to proceed with a purchase when they are stuck in a chain. To do this, James and his team have...

Pat Hayes is Managing Director of Be First, an innovative development vehicle set up to deliver 50,000 new homes and 20,000 new jobs for the borough of Barking and Dagenham over the next 20 years. Pat discusses his experience as a planner delivering large scale regeneration projects with private developers at Ealing, Lewisham, and then as a partnership manager for TFL. Pat has a refreshing view of...

With guest Rob Bould, the vice chairman of LandAid, a charity with the aim of ending youth homelessness. We focus on Rob being somewhat of a disrupter in the property market and discuss the companies he's involved with which are using technology to transform the property sector.