Planning and development consultancy Montagu Evans has appointed Guy Bransby as its Head of Central London Planning, joining the firm in April this year.

Guy moves to the partnership from JLL, where he worked for 18 years, most recently as Lead Director – Planning, Development & Heritage.

The partnership, which celebrates its centenary this year, currently numbers 95 Partners within its 425-strong team. In addition to this appointment, the firm announced former Colliers and EY Business Rates Director Ben Monk joining at the start of February and Allsopp’s former Head of Rating Victoria Boateng joining in December 2020. Other senior hires are anticipated and in December 2020 the firm moved from Mayfair to new offices at 70 St Mary Axe in the City of London.

Rob Bower, Montagu Evans’ Managing Partner, said: “Mid-Covid, post-Brexit and with such a fundamental shake-up of the planning system underway it’s a critical time to be helping clients unlock sites and bring forward new projects. London will be the engine of the UK’s recovery, however, and we are starting to see early opportunities coming forward. Guy’s leadership in this area is already well-established and he will be a very welcome addition to our team of talented planners and heritage consultants already embedded in major projects throughout the capital.”

Commenting on the appointment, Guy Bransby added: “Montagu Evans stands out for putting planning and development at the heart of its consultancy business and integrating these functions across all its sectors and geographies. It has ambitious plans for growth and London is an important area of focus – from major mixed-use schemes and landmark housing to sensitive and high-profile heritage and townscape advice. It is a hugely exciting opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Montagu Evans have appointed Dr Paul Stamper as a Consultant in their Planning and Heritage team, specialising in change and development in historic parks.

Paul brings with him 40 years of experience in researching and managing England’s historic environment with the Victoria County History and English Heritage/Historic England. As an Inspector of Historic Parks and Gardens he revised c.170 register entries setting out the history and significance of designed landscapes of all types from early landscape parks to Victorian cemeteries. Later he had various roles dealing with the assessment and management of archaeological sites, buildings and landscapes.

Paul’s particular interests focus on the history of the English landscape. He is a Visiting Fellow at Leicester University’s Centre for English Local History and has published extensively on the topic. He was joint editor of the standard overview Medieval Rural Settlement (2012), and of the award-winning Legacies of the First World War (2018). Paul has regularly taught courses on the English landscape at universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol, and has served terms as an officer for several of the country’s leading archaeological societies. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Planning and Heritage Partner, Dr Chris Miele said: “We are delighted to be working with Dr Stamper on a range of projects involving historic landscapes and registered parks and gardens. The planning process is increasingly alive to the ‘time depth’ in the English landscape. An appreciation of that is shaping the form and type of developments we are assisting clients in promoting, and he is also expert in the assessment of landscapes for designation purposes. Paul enhances our already distinguished heritage research and analysis function.”

Montagu Evans’ 70-strong planning team based in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow works with both private and public sector clients. Its strong profile in London and expert heritage consultants are complemented by planners specialising in residential, retail and leisure, industrial and logistics, offices education and town centre regeneration, working with project teams across the UK.

Planning and development consultancy Montagu Evans has appointed its first new Partner of 2021, with former Business Rates Director at EY, Ben Monk joining  its expanding rating team.

Monk brings with him with over 13 years’ rating expertise, with previous roles also including Business Rates Director at Colliers International where he specialised in Central London rating appeals looking after clients including Bupa, Blackstone, Watches of Switzerland, and CapCo, and jointly founded the London Rating Network. Prior to that, he was Associate Director at Savills, where his role focused on business rates as well as valuation.

At Montagu Evans, Monk will help build the partnership’s existing occupier-focused rating practice, specialising in City of London offices.

Last year, Montagu Evans’ rating team grew after welcoming four new appointments, with the most recent in December 2020 when Victoria Boateng, former Head of Rating at Allsop, joined as Partner. The other appointments include Abdul Khoshan, Alice Schorb and Christina Moore. In November, Head of Rating Josh Myerson also became President of the Rating Surveyors’ Association.

Myerson said: “Ben joins at a time when the market is facing unprecedented challenges, and we are pleased to welcome his extensive expertise and excellent track record. With more change still on the horizon for businesses, we are confident that his insight and wealth of experience will be a great asset to our team, while our new base at 70 St Mary Axe will be perfect for his focus on City of London offices.”

For the third consecutive year, Montagu Evans have been named one of the Best Places to Work in Property 2020 by Property Week.

As one of the top 28 companies in the UK, businesses were assessed on eight key factors:

• overall engagement;
• leadership and planning;
• culture and communication;
• role satisfaction;
• work environment;
• relationship with supervisor;
• training and development; and
• pay and benefits

The anonymous survey issued to 250 people identified relationships, engagement, communication and leadership as scoring particularly high. Open text comments allow individual the freedom to describe working at the firm in their own words, some of which include:

“Montagu Evans creates a very positive and stimulating work environment, they genuinely want to be a best in class employer and service provider to clients.”

“Every single person in the firm is treated with respect and seen as part of the family. There is a great deal of flexibility and a sense of pride across the firm. You come to work wanting to do a good job. There is an   approachable atmosphere and a sense of fun yet we all work hard wanting to succeed. Quite simply, a culture so good you wouldn’t mind working long hours, yet you are encouraged to actually have a proper work life balance.”

“You feel recognised and appreciated from all levels of management.”

“It is a friendly, open and collaborative environment where everyone is very willing to give up their time to help each other and share their knowledge and skills.”

Commenting on the news, Rob Bower, Managing Partner said:

“We’re truly honoured to be recognised again, and it’s a credit to everyone in the partnership, the openness and transparency throughout teams and our continued investment in our people. Over this year in particular we have all felt the implications to morale during lockdown, but I have honestly seen it as having brought our people and teams even closer together. Being more accessible, more conscientious and more supportive.

We value feedback, much of which forms the basis of a number of initiatives we run, and it is our aim to continue to be recognised. To strive to be a place our people enjoy, can learn from each other and thrive in their careers.”

Montagu Evans has this week welcomed 14 graduate trainees as part of its continued investment in the younger generations of its partnership.

The firm, which celebrates its centenary next year, has appointed the new recruits in planning, heritage and surveying, working across a range of its core business sectors such as housing and land, town centres, industrial and logistics and healthcare, amongst others.

The intake is made up of nine women and five men from universities including Newcastle, Edinburgh and Nottingham as well as Reading and Oxford Brookes. It is the largest cohort of female graduates arriving at the firm to date.

Rob Bower, Managing Partner of Montagu Evans, said: “Even in challenging circumstances we are firmly committed to continuing the flow of new talent into the business. It serves our clients and teams well to know that we place significant emphasis on training, development and the long-term strength and succession of our partnership.

“While there is still a great deal more to do, we are committed to improving inclusivity across the business – from graduates to leadership and all the levels in between.”

Following the success of 3 events in 2019 Montagu Evans have now joined Future of London. A network dedicated to support those working to deliver a progressive, sustainable and equitable city.

The 2019 events underpinned Future of London’s “Paying For It” programme which explored public, private and alternative/emerging sources of funding to support projects across the Capital. Montagu Evans have now joined the team and the steering group to help deliver on vital initiatives impacting local authorities, housing associations, developers, SME’s and other public bodies.

The partnership encourages debate, thought pieces and practical events for enhancing skills and supports knowledge sharing across boroughs and a range of decision makers. The relationship also supports rising talent with their Future Leaders programme, a network of 450 individuals who have taken part in their highly acclaimed development programme addressing regeneration, planning, infrastructure, sustainability and social impact.

As the new member of their steering group, Partner and Head of London Oliver Maury commented:

“After many years of working with Future of London, I’m delighted now to announce this close partnership and support from Montagu Evans, for what will be an exciting series of programmes in 2020 and beyond. We can’t wait to inform the research and debate into key issues facing our industry, with our own experiences of planning, heritage, development and regeneration. And no doubt we’ll be learning a huge amount ourselves along the way.”

The first campaign the firm are pleased to support is Achieving Net Zero. With 26 London boroughs having declared climate change emergency, we will be working with Future of London to understand what this means in reality? How to write this into strategies, delivery plans and what local authorities can, or should, expect from development partners.

Montagu Evans is relocating its London headquarters to larger offices in the City of London, signing up for new space at Nuveen Real Estate’s 70 St Mary Axe, EC3.

The property and development consultancy firm has taken the twelfth floor and part of the eleventh floor – a total of over 25,000 sq ft (2,323 sq m) – on a 15-year lease.

The twelfth floor, which offers 360-degree natural light and views of the city, will bring together the firm’s London team on one floorplate for the first time, while the eleventh floor will be dedicated to clients and collaborative workspaces. BDG has been appointed to design the new office, which will include creating a central staircase between the two floors, flexible collaboration and meeting spaces for both clients and teams as well as new IT and agile working capability.

Rob Bower, Montagu Evans’ Managing Partner, said:

“We’re looking ahead to the future of the firm with this new office. London’s centre is shifting further east and we intend to stay at its heart, closer to many of our clients and easier for more of our team to access. The amenities on offer in the City are now unrecognisable from 10 or even five years ago.  Communications are excellent and set to improve with the completion of Crossrail with its new Liverpool Street station three minutes’ walk from the premises.

“Cross-service and sector-based working is becoming more important to our clients, as they tackle greater challenges around transforming assets and adding value – both financial and social. With everyone working closer together in one space we will be much better set up for our specialist teams to collaborate, supported by investment in new systems, tech and with the flexibility to grow in line with our core strategy.”

The 438,000 sq ft (40,700 sq m) building’s sustainability credentials were part of its attraction, with BREEAM Excellent, an EPC Rating of A, Wired-Score Platinum and Cycle Score Platinum all important factors in the firm’s decision making. Designed by Foggo Associates, 70 St Mary Axe has a distinctive, elegantly curved shape meaning it is already an internationally recognised icon of the City of London.

Peter Neal, Director of Offices, Europe at Nuveen Real Estate, comments:

“We are delighted to be welcoming Montagu Evans to 70 St Mary Axe.  The transaction demonstrates the building’s appeal to occupiers from right across central London – not just those traditionally associated with the City of London – and in this case a firm looking for a completely new approach to its workspace.”

Montagu Evans, which also has offices in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, will occupy the space from December 2020.