Impact Report 2024: Citizenship as a verb
17 March 2025
We first certified as a B Corp in 2021. In 2024 we went through our recertification process with external analysts to independently verify our impact all over again. We’ve been interrogating the ways in which we deliver public good, and targeting improvements to make ourselves the best we can be.
Our third Impact Report covers 2024 and we have reflected on what it means to work together, not just within the practice, but with partners, collaborators and communities.
How can we be good citizens? Writer Leela Keshav spoke with the team and community researcher, Mia Lundie-Smith, and placed a critical lens over our work as we reflected on our impacts in 2024. The result? Leela’s essay, Citizenship as a verb.
Ongoing partnerships and expanding places
2024 brought political change to the country. At the ballot box, the country returned the first Labour government in 14 years. Yet there was also a certain pause – perhaps an intake of breath – before action, understandably reflecting a new era of decision-making at national, regional and local levels.
In this context, we have been pleased to continue to work with existing partners, and to reach out into new projects in new places.
This Impact Report reflects on our work in 2024 across:
- 9 urban research studies
- 23 strategies and masterplans
- 22 public spaces and buildings
- 7 design advocacy roles
The places where we’ve worked in 2024
Our 2024 impact at-a-glance
Throughout 2024, we deepened our work with returning clients and increased our partnership working with wider consultant teams. In London, across the Thames estuary, in west midlands towns and in places across the north west, we’ve been anchored by strong relationships with communities and clients. This is reflected in an increase in the proportion of our projects for repeat clients, up to 78% from 70% last year.
We’ve also been working in new places. Bristol, Coventry, Weston-super-Mare, Wigan and Malmö, Sweden are all places with an independent and vibrant spirit.
Everywhere, our collaborators have been welcoming.
These have all brought us into closer contact with change-makers doing things in many different ways. We carry these valuable lessons with us across all of our projects.
Canning Town Enterprise Hub: We guided green investment in Canning Town and Cody Road
Women’s Safety Audit Pilots: We piloted new models of participation
In the face of the government’s national growth mission and the seemingly all-encompassing drive to deliver 1.5 million new homes, we are keen to think about not just how to meet the mission, but how to do it well. In this light, we’re excited about our ‘Right to Place’ partnership with Key Cities exploring spatial justice. This will span 2025 and build on our early thinking in 2024 through our practice pin-ups, to expand notions of spatial justice and ‘rights’ with a wider range of partners from across the UK: the right to a voice, the right to a home, the right to a healthy city.
