What our clients think of us

The Council have instructed Hive on a number of significant residential and regeneration projects within the City, including the review and implementation of the City Living Strategy, bidding to the LGA to secure funding and helping to establish a housing delivery vehicle. Hive are also project managing the delivery of the Homes England Local Authority Accelerated Construction Programme, the purpose of which is to invest grant into PCC owned sites to unlock them for residential development. Critically, Hive understand the way the Council operates and so have always provided prompt and well considered advice and they share our drive to achieve the Council’s growth objectives for the City.
Chris Hayward , Director of Development , Preston City Council​
Chris Hayward , Director of Development , Preston City Council​
Homes England have worked with Hive on a wide range of projects, including site promotion, strategic business cases, the promotion of HE programmes to local authority partners, evidence-based work on housing delivery trajectories, complex commercial negotiations around access agreements and development agreements and large scale outline planning applications. Myself and the team have been very pleased with the work Hive have done, which has always been to an extremely high standard and delivered in line with our programme and always to budget. Hive’s collaborative approach and public-private experience has been critical in helping us to achieve successful outcomes with both developers and local authority partners.
Nicola Elsworth , Head of Planning & Enabling Homes England
Nicola Elsworth , Head of Planning & Enabling Homes England
Hive have assisted us hugely in the delivery of our flagship regeneration scheme – Cotton Works – in Wigan, the largest brownfield site in single ownership in Greater Manchester. Hive have expertly navigated us on a journey with a number of critical public sector bodies, including Wigan Council, Homes England, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Historic England. As well as providing project leadership and establishing robust governance arrangements, Hive successfully bid into the GMCA brownfield land programme, securing grant funding which has been pivotal in unlocking the first phase of residential development. Hive offer a unique skill set for this type of regeneration project, embedding a collaborative approach across all their work.
John Heaton , Managing Director , The Heaton Group
John Heaton , Managing Director , The Heaton Group
Hive’s responsive, pro-active and solution-based approach was pivotal in the successful drafting and submission of a business case to support a brownfield land fund bid to the Tees Valley Combined Authority, to unlock our Middlehaven site which is the Council’s most significant regeneration project. We were particularly impressed with their direct and constructive engagement with the funding body to secure a positive outcome.
Steve Fletcher , Head of Development , Middlesbrough Council
Steve Fletcher , Head of Development , Middlesbrough Council
We have appointed Hive as planning consultant on a wide range of residential projects for a number of years and they have consistently delivered excellent results, but at the same time have been approachable, easy to deal with and have a ‘can-do’ attitude. Hive’s ability to manage a wide and complex range of matters, from the promotion of Green Belt Land through the Local Plan process, through to detailed planning applications, condition discharge or running community consultations has meant that we have been able to call upon their services in respect of any aspect of our portfolio.
Sally Riley , Redrow Homes
Sally Riley , Redrow Homes
as a Council we have worked with Hive for over five years on our Garden Village. Hive’s expertise and knowledge around the delivery of large, new settlements has been hugely important in guiding delivery. Hive have brought a range of advice and key outputs to the project, including drafting a strategy and leading on landowner engagement, pre application work with developers, housing trajectory planning, and working tirelessly with Homes England on our successful Housing Infrastructure Bid and working with their acquisitions team in exploring buying a key settlement within the Garden Village. Hive continue to make a significant contribution to the project, and are a pleasure to work with.
Jane Meek , Cumberland Council
Jane Meek , Cumberland Council
we have instructed Hive to provide project management support and technical expertise to deliver a large, stalled site in the Council’s ownership. We chose Hive mainly as a result of their impressive track record of working with public bodies on the de-risking and disposal of land for residential development. Hive have consistently gone the extra mile, always hit deadlines, and are a pleasure to work with. The combination of project management skills along with technical delivery advice has been key to formulating a robust strategy, ensuring that the Council’s vision and objectives for the site are achieved.
Nick Carter , Director of Growth and Regeneration , Peterborough Council
Nick Carter , Director of Growth and Regeneration , Peterborough Council
we have instructed Hive directly on two sites, and they are working with one of our developer partners on the other. Hive have provided expert planning consultancy advice across the three sites, leading the project management of the multi-disc team in the co-ordination of detailed planning applications. In undertaking this role Hive have been very proactive to understand our requirements, and in the way they work with local planning authority officers. We were particularly impressed on one of the schemes, where Hive addressed and overcame over 80 objections, dealing with a number of complex and sensitive issues around the loss of sports facilities and initial political opposition.
Nick Cumberland , Head of Partnerships , Great Places
Nick Cumberland , Head of Partnerships , Great Places
Hive have been sourcing new site opportunities for Maple Grove Developments since Hive were established. Stuart, Mark and the team took the time to fully understand Maple Grove Developments business and site requirements. Sites have been identified through Hive’s extensive network of contacts and excellent relationships with senior Local Authority officers. Hive are a driven team to work with, who are committed to get the job done.
Karen Hirst , Managing Director , Maple Grove Developments
Karen Hirst , Managing Director , Maple Grove Developments
we have worked with Hive from the outset, when Stuart and Mark set the business up in early 2018. Their wealth of experience on Garden Villages, public funding programmes and strategic partnership advice has been invaluable to our Garden Village project. Hive have demonstrated an ability to turn their hands to a wide range of tasks from Housing Delivery Strategies to the implementation of Green Infrastructure and its maintenance through a Man.Co. Of particular note however was the hard work, focussed yet flexible attitude that saw Hive successfully lead Cheshire East’s bid for £21.7m of grant funding through the HIF programme. Hive drafted large sections, co-ordinated the input of other consultants, plugged gaps in the team and generally orchestrated the whole bid through to a conclusion. Their experience of having worked for Homes England and connections back to key individuals brought significant benefits to the process.
Mark Thompson , Director , Cheshire East Council
Mark Thompson , Director , Cheshire East Council
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Seedfield Centre, Bury

Instructed by Hive Homes to provide planning consultancy advice in respect of a residential scheme proposed on a previously developed site in the Green Belt. We initially led the pre-application discussions with Bury Council, who were also the landowner.

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Yew Tree Farm, Burscough

Acting for Redrow, Hive were instructed to lead the submission of a reserved matters application for 169 homes. This was the third phase of residential development at Yew Tree Farm and so it was important to ensure that consistency was achieved and we did this by working extremely closely with the design and technical teams at Redrow.

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Former Riverside High School, Bury

The former Riverside High School site is located to the west of Radcliffe town centre and has been vacant since 2015. The site, which was cleared in 2021, provided an opportunity to delivery for much needed housing development in Bury. 

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Marton Estate, Fylde

Marton Estate is an 11 hectare Site situated in the Fylde-Blackpool periphery strategic location for development, which was identified in the Local Plan. The Site was allocated for mixed use development to fulfil growth objectives for the Borough. Outline planning permission had previously been granted on the Site for the development of 265 dwellings and 1.5 hectares of employment use, however development did not come forward and the permission expired before a Reserved Matters Application was submitted. Homes England subsequently acquired part of the site to help deliver much needed housing development in Fylde.

 

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Baxters Lane, St Helens

Baxters Lane is a vacant industrial site in the east of St Helens. Hive was commissioned to prepare and submit a full planning application for the development of 28 dwellings for affordable rent along with associated access, parking and landscaping. 

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Lancots Lane, St Helens

Lancots Lane is a 4.5 hectare unallocated brownfield site in the heart of the urban area of St Helens. The Site was previously occupied by chemical works at a time when the east of St Helens was predominantly industrial. This part of St Helens has changed significantly in the past 10 years and is now a focus for housing development.  

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2020 Winner of the national Planning Awards Editors Choice Award for best overall project and the Increased Housing Delivery category for Preston City Living Strategy

2020 Winner of the Spatial Planning and Plan-Making award in the RTPI North West Regional Awards for Planning Excellence for the Preston City Living Strategy

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