designe Ltd

What is designe Ltd?

designe Ltd is the new name for design_north east. We support local authorities, public sector bodies, councillors, communities and developers to design better and more sustainable places, helping to stimulate economic and good growth. We are dedicated to generating a strong sense of place in living, working and leisure environments throughout North East England and further afield.

We work across the public, private and community sectors to drive up the skills and knowledge of all those involved in new development, promoting good design and encouraging strong client leadership.

designe Ltd achieves these objectives by providing the following services:

• Design Review

• Building for a Healthy Life

• Learning

• Project Enabling and Inception

• Economic Development, Community Engagement and Regeneration Consultancy

designe Ltd recognises that we have an obligation to all those that we support and work with, to observe and maintain the highest ethical standards in everything that we do and therefore we observe the Seven Principles of Public Life – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership – in all that we do.

Please read on for more details about how we can help you.

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Design Review For North East England

Building for a Healthy Life

What is Building for a Healthy Life?

Building for a Healthy Life (BHL) is the latest edition of and the new name for Building for Life 12 

It is a Design Code for neighbourhoods, streets, homes, and public spaces. The original 12-point structure and underlying principles within Building for Life 12 are at the heart of Building for a Healthy Life. 

We at designe welcome the tactical shift in emphasis moving away from the 12 questions in Building for Life 12 to using the 12 considerations in Building for a Healthy Life as a basis for discussion and design exploration at the very start of the design process, recognising that good design requires more time, analysis and thought.

This latest edition has been written in partnership with Homes England, who will use it as their key measure of design quality, and both NHS England and NHS Improvement. BHL integrates the learning from the Healthy New Towns Programme-Putting Health into Place.

We have trained over 100 practitioners and councillors in the North East in the use of Building for Life 12 in recent years and we are pleased that the new BHL guide recognises designe as the organisation to provide BHL help, advice, training and Review in the region. 

You can download BHL here.

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Learning

What learning do you offer?

Clients can access the broad professional expertise of the designe Panel for a range of bespoke learning sessions to upskill in-house staff.

designe Ltd along with its eight partners in the Design Network received funding from the first wave of the Planning Delivery Fund to help Local Authorities speed up planning decisions and deliver, quality new homes. This funding enabled designe Ltd to focus on helping to increase the skills and learning of both councillors, planning officers, and communities in improving design quality and delivery outcomes.

The recently published National Design Guide challenges us to rethink local design policy and how we evaluate design quality. In order to make effective planning decisions officers and elected members need to understand what the guide says and how to use it. MHCLG have commissioned designe Ltd as part of the Design Network to deliver this National Design Guide learning event for Local Planning Authorities in the North East. The training is designed to enable those involved in planning, housing and regeneration to develop an understanding of the National Design Guide.

Delegates can expect to:
- understand how the National Design Guide relates to local planning practice
- become familiar with the 10 characteristics of the National Design Guide and their interconnections
- understand how the framework fits into wider national planning policy
- be able to make practical use of the National Design Guide to evaluate design quality 

At the moment the event is only for officers and elected members in local planning authorities in North East England and places are limited. Because of Covid 19 restrictions we cancelled the planned event but are busy developing a series of online seminars to ensure that we can still deliver the training.

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Project Enabling ( & Inception)

What services do you offer?

We help local authorities, clients and developers by strengthening policies and plans, and providing expertise and advice. We support public, private and community stakeholders from the conception of a project through every stage of the inception, design and planning process. 

Our support is tailored to the requirements of local authorities and complements Design Review, offering impartial early advice that helps to strengthen internal capacity and enable more effective and efficient development management. Through our Panel we offer expertise and experience to clients at the beginning of the development process, such as visioning for development sites, setting out the framework for developing a brief or selecting the design team and securing programme and project delivery objectives.

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 Economic Development, Community Engagement and Regeneration Consultancy

What services do you offer?

Recommended by a leading interim recruiter as “the two best interims” in their fields John and Chris head our consultancy offer. This means that we are uniquely equipped to provide you with the right built environment advice and support when you need it most. Our highly experienced and nationally respected Panel of Consultants have a proven track record for beneficial change working across all sectors engaged in the built environment and will typically be involved in a range of interventions to help clients “get things done” and that could include:

• Economic Development and Regeneration

• Community Engagement

• Making better use of assets, powers and income streams

• Public Private Partnerships - Collaboration - Joint Ventures

• Elevating organisational, team and individual performance.

• Project Turnaround Specialists

• Project Due Diligence and Recovery

• Transition Management

• Trouble Shooting

• Programme & Project Management

• Strategic Asset Management and Corporate Landlord

We are active in the market and have an established track record providing consultancy services across the UK. We provide high quality services at fair rates and our daily rates and charges are in line with the market trend.

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