Strategic Site Finding – Golf Courses and Rail Stations

We are regularly asked by clients to help them identify potential development opportunities for them to promote through local plans and planning applications. These can vary from ‘deep dive’ reviews seeking to unearth sites in individual districts, through to more macro assessments looking at regions or nationwide.

In this example, we were asked by our client – a national house builder - to focus on two types of opportunity within the commuting catchment of the UK’s metropolitan urban areas: land around railway stations and on potentially redundant golf courses. We used our GIS and spatial analytics skills to identify a long-list of qualifying locations with scope for potential development, and then carried out analysis (using factors such as commuting/station capacity and golf participation trends) to identify a short list of potential locations in each city region. For the shortlisted locations we carried out a more detailed analysis of planning and development constraints and opportunities. These results were then available to the client to explore opportunities with landowners.

Matthew Spry, Senior Director, Lichfields