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Our services

Planning & Engagement

WHAT WE OFFER

 

PLANNING & ENGAGEMENT

We develop, and implement, strategies that enable you to connect meaningfully with the right local audiences. Whether you are seeking to consult on a new development project, raise your profile with local stakeholders, or simply gain better understanding of community aspirations, we can tailor a bespoke approach.

Delivering the right messaging to the right audience at the right time is crucial. It helps you to achieve your immediate goals while also building meaningful relationships with local communities and developing a long-term reputation for competence.

Our key competencies are:

Insight underpins everything we do. Our bespoke engagement strategies are informed both by initial desktop research (which can extend to local survey work and focus groups when appropriate) and our own experience of working across the majority of local authorities in England. We enable you to put your best foot forward, armed with a good understanding of the local outlook and messaging that resonates with the community and its elected representatives. 

With decades of experience as leading public consultation specialists, we have delivered comprehensive public consultation services for some of the UK’s most significant development and infrastructure projects. Our expert team manages every stage of the consultation process, including full event set-up, creation of consultation materials, event management, and detailed feedback collation, ensuring all statutory consultation and stakeholder engagement requirements are met efficiently and effectively.

We provide tailored public consultation solutions for projects of any size, supporting clients to achieve meaningful community engagement, planning success, and positive project outcomes. 

As experienced stakeholder engagement specialists, we work closely with a diverse range of stakeholders-including local communities, councillors, MPs, and community groups to build strong, lasting relationships on behalf of our clients. Our nationwide team brings deep local knowledge and established connections, enabling us to deliver genuine, meaningful engagement tailored to the unique needs of each community.

We provide comprehensive stakeholder engagement services, from initial outreach and relationship building to ongoing communication and consultation, ensuring that all voices are heard and valued. Our approach not only supports successful project delivery but also fosters positive outcomes for both clients and the communities in which they operate.

 

Our team includes specialists in Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.  

We have consistently led innovation in delivering NSIPs. Our approach, underpinned by social research, de-risks projects from the outset, providing in-depth insight early on, which helps streamline the planning process, reduce stakeholder pushback and avoid costly delays. Through our annual NSIP Research, presented at this year’s NSIP Forum, we’ve helped the industry identify what makes large-scale infrastructure acceptable or unacceptable for communities – and how developers can address this.

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Construction brings its own challenges, with the potential to adversely impact your reputation, if not properly handled. During this phase, we can provide a ready interface between our clients and local residents: fielding routine inquiries, issuing community newsletters and hosting Community Liaison Groups, where the development is of an appropriate scale or complexity.  

Construction can also be an opportunity to showcase aspects of your development (e.g. skills, apprenticeships, affordable housing). A programme of stakeholder engagement and site visits can provide positive media content as you move towards the sales or operational stage of your project. 

We have a specialism in building safety comms, working with developers and freeholders to ensure that timely and transparent communication about remedial works is shared with leaseholders. This is sensitive engagement, requiring on-going social monitoring to identify and tackle potential crises before they arise, and intensive inbox management.

Our digital engagement services make it easy for everyone to have their say in the planning process. We design and deliver high-quality, user-friendly consultation websites tailored to your project’s needs, ensuring clear communication and maximum participation. Our platforms are built to the highest standards, providing accessible, transparent and engaging tools for public consultation.

In addition to bespoke consultation websites, we run targeted social media campaigns to reach and inspire those who may not typically engage with the planning process. By broadening participation and generating supporter involvement, we help you build a more inclusive, representative picture of community views.

Whether you need a simple, effective digital consultation or a comprehensive, multi-channel engagement strategy, our team delivers professional, results-driven digital engagement for projects of any scale.

As always, their support has been indispensable to achieving a positive outcome for our planning application.

JOHN LONGHORN
SENIOR PLANNING MANAGER - Vistry Group

Key contacts

Meet our Planning & Engagement specialists
NATIONWIDE PRESENCE

We can provide local knowledge and expertise with offices in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester.

LOCAL EXPERTISE

SEC Newgate’s 20-strong community engagement team has years of experience when it comes to local advocacy. A creative mix of former councillors, political enthusiasts and public affairs specialists, we understand well the complex web of grass roots connections and how to influence them, whatever the case you are seeking to make. 

INSIGHT LED

Our dedicated insight team is skilled at monitoring and analysing the political, media and social environment in which your business operates. We monitor industry and political trends; track conversations across the social landscape and get under the surface of local communities. Our perception audits can provide valuable insight into the impact your business is making.

Longer reads and in-depth analysis from across the UK team

Reports and brochures


            <div>Advocacy - Delivering positive impact through national and local public affairs</div>
Advocacy - Delivering positive impact through national and local public affairs

Read about our Advocacy team - delivering positive impact through national and local...


            <div>Our experience in the North of England</div>
Our experience in the North of England

Discover more about our team and experience across the North of England.


            <div>Our experience in Wales</div>
Our experience in Wales

Headquartered in Cardiff, SEC Newgate Wales has a strong track record of supporting our...


            <div>NSIP Research 2025</div>
NSIP Research 2025

Read our 2025 NSIP research report 'Energy, Everywhere, all at once' 


            <div>National Planning Barometer 2024</div>
National Planning Barometer 2024

The latest iteration of our annual planning barometer takes a deep dive to untangle the...


            <div>SEC Newgate UK - Onshore Wind Research 2024</div>
SEC Newgate UK - Onshore Wind Research 2024

In July 2024, the Labour Government announced its ‘Policy statement on onshore wind’...


            <div>Solar and Storage in 2025</div>
Solar and Storage in 2025

There’s been no easing in to 2025 for the solar sector. Dropping just before Christmas...


            <div>Supporting your data centre project</div>
Supporting your data centre project

Data centre development: the challenge for 2025

SUCCESSFUL STAKEHOLDER & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

We structure our engagement strategies around the premise that communication is a two-way process. We start by gaining insight into communities’ and individuals’ current thinking; that helps us determine the messages that need to be delivered and the best way in which to do so. We also advise on the questions to ask and to whom they should be put. Our aim is to gather as much information as we disseminate.

We have worked across every region of England and Wales and in the majority of local authorities. We know how the system works.

Related thinking

Insights and articles from our Planning & Engagement experts

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New business enquiry? Need help with engaging stakeholders?

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