URBED (Urban and Economic Development) Ltd is a not-for-profit urban regeneration consultancy, founded in 1976. Since then we have pioneered many of the urban regeneration techniques which have become commonplace such as town centre visions and health checks, and the use of development trusts.

Our activities fall broadly into the following areas:

Consultancy work - Undertaken for clients in the public, private and voluntary sectors throughout the UK and increasingly in Europe.

Research - Which both feeds off and contributes to our consultancy work. We have undertaken major research contracts for the Department of the Environment and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Implementation - Unlike many consultants we have practical experience of implementing our proposals. This ranges from local action projects to regenerate areas in Bradford and Birmingham, and the reuse of historic buildings, to programmes to help the creation of new communities in Growth Areas.

The Team

Dr Nicholas Falk BA MBA PhD Hon FRIBA
Founder Director

Nicholas Falk is an economist, strategic planner and urbanist. Nicholas founded URBED in 1976 to offer practical solutions to urban regeneration and local economic development. Over the last five years he has focused on new communities, the future of the suburbs, visions for historic town centres, and the reuse of old buildings. He has a particular interest in drawing lessons from European good practice. He is co-author of Building the 21st Century Home, the sustainable urban neighbourhood (which Heineman are republishing this year) and, New Life for Smaller Towns for the GLA. Recent publications include Regeneration of European Cities, for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth for Cambridgeshire Horizons (which was a finalist at the 2009 RTPI Planning Award), Beyond Eco-Towns with PRP and Design for Homes. In London he recently produced Over the Edge? Town centres and the economy for the North and West Strategic Alliances.

He has been involved in a number of major new housing schemes, including the new town of Northstowe in Cambridge and the urban extension of Houghton Regis North in Bedfordshire. He is currently working for East Cambridgeshire District Council on the Masterplan for the City of Ely.

He has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the School of the Built Environment, University of the West of England and also an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism. He is an active member of the Urban Design Group and the Town and Country Planning Association. He is on the Inspire East and IDeA Enabling Panels and is also a non executive board member of Harlow Renaissance Ltd.

Research reports on the suburbs include City of Villages and the follow up good practice toolkit Tomorrow's Suburbs for the Greater London Authority; Attitudes to Higher Density Housing and Neighbourhood Revival; towards more sustainable suburbs in the South East for the South East England Regional Assembly, as well as numerous articles in journals and edited Built Environment's special edition Towards Sustainable Suburbs.

Francesca King BA DipPM Chartered MCIPD
Director

Francesca, a sociology graduate of York University, with particular expertise in community engagement and capacity building, led the highly successful Entrepreneurial Management Skills (EMS) programme for voluntary sector managers. Most recent and current projects include Managing Mixed Communities for English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation, and Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth, which has included a study tour to Freiburg and the Netherlands. Francesca has also managed a town centre study of Northcote Road in Wandsworth which explores how the essence of ‘special places’ can be retained. She worked for ATCM on a European Interreg programme (TOCEMA), with partners in France and Belgium, to disseminate good practice on six town centre concerns, and to devise key performance indicators, and also provided consultancy support to the ATCM on their National Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Pilot, a programme of support to twenty two UK towns. Francesca is responsible for public liaison at the More London site in Southwark (home of the GLA). She managed two research projects for SEERA, one on Councillor Attitudes to Higher Density Housing, and the other on Sustainable Suburbs in the South East. Francesca was also responsible for producing an Action Plan for South East Excellence, the South East England Development Agency’s regional centre of excellence for the built environment.

Anne Wyatt BA
Project Manager

Anne did her undergraduate work in business studies and is one of URBED’s project managers. Most recently she has managed the development of a masterplan for the sustainable growth of the City of Ely on behalf of East Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridgeshire Horizons and Cambridgeshire County Council. She undertook the trader’s survey and family focus group for Sustaining Northcote Road as a Special Place for Wandsworth Council. Anne also manages the TEN Group, which is a group of senior local authority officers in London who come together to share experience and exchange knowledge on achieving urban renaissance through meetings and study tours. Anne is currently managing a project to develop a shared vision for Ipswich with Ipswich Central the town’s BID.

Anne manages events for the London office. She has organised many successful symposia and recently organised an event to launch URBED’s report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Regeneration in European Cities: making connections at the Local Government Association. Anne also provides reporting and facilitation support with particular expertise in working with young people, examples include four community consultation workshops in Gateshead, Haringey, Leicester and Sheffield as part of the Business-Led Regeneration project for the DTI and ODPM, and a youth workshop in Stroud for Stroud Town Centre Evening Economy Action Plan. Anne has played a major role in developing URBED’s ‘looking and learning’ process which has included organising study tours to Germany and the Netherlands and successful schemes in the UK for the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth Initiative and is now managing the third phase of the initiative. She has recently organised study tours to Berlin and Belfast for senior local authority officers, to Amersfoort and Freiburg for the University of Cambridge and has helped the Town and Country Planning Association to organise a study tour to new towns and urban extensions in the Netherlands for the Government’s Eco-Towns shortlist.

Claire Farrell BA
Administrative Assistant

Claire did her undergraduate work in English Literature and provides administrative support to the URBED consultancy team. Together with the day-to-day running of the office, Claire maintains URBED’s library of publications, reports and website. Claire is currently working on a project we are undertaking with the University College London Towards Successful Suburban Town Centres. She is helping to produce case studies of suburban town centres which will involve organising workshops. Claire also assists in the organisation of events and study tours.