David Simmonds Consultancy Ltd was set up in 1990 and has carried out a wide variety of studies for public and private clients in the UK and abroad. These studies have ranged from brief reviews of particular subjects to major projects in forecasting and impact assessment. Many have been carried out in collaboration with other leading firms in transport, planning, economics and property consultancy.
One of our specialities is forecasting the impacts of transport on regional economies and on urban activities and development. In this we can consider the effects of public and private transport, passengers and goods, and changes in services and pricing as well as changes in infrastructure. We are also very much involved in forecasting the impacts of planning policies, that is, how plans for the physical development or redevelopment of an area will translate into numbers of households of different kinds, numbers of jobs, and so on, taking account of the impact that new developments will have on the occupancy of the existing stock. Much of our work is carried out using formal land-use models and land-use/transport interaction models. We are also increasingly involved in appraisal; that is, not just forecasting what will happen, but also analyzing who will be affected by the benefits and disbenefits involved.
RECENT NEWS
January 2020: Recent announcements from the Westminster government say that HM Treasury’s approach to the appraisal of investment and other projects (the “Green Book”) is to be revised. The revisions should shift the focus away from national benefits so as to give proper attention to the regional pattern of costs and benefits. DSC has been arguing for a spatial approach to project appraisal since the firm was set up in 1990, so these announcements are very welcome. The Unified Land-Use/Transport Appraisal method (ULTrA), which we have recently completed and are currently applying for TfL and the UK2070 Commission, has been designed from the outset to identify the distribution of benefits both between sectors of the economy and between communities and regions, and is therefore very relevant to this new thinking.
January 2020: We are pleased to announce that Cara NicLeòid has joined DSC as an Analyst.
December 2019: David Simmonds Consultancy were part of the team commissioned to work on developing the business case for the redevelopment of the Alexander Stadium, in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham. The work has had a positive outcome with Birmingham City Council receiving funding of £20million from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP for the work. DSC’s work involved the use of the DEIM economic model to forecast the economic benefits of the investment.