Members of Carter Jonas’s Regeneration, Retail and Town Centre Consultancy team were commissioned by the London Borough of Hackney to assess and test the retail planning and commercial soundness of the emerging Area Action Plans (AAPs) for Dalston and Hackney Central.

We also advised on the appropriate scale and mix of retail and commercial leisure floorspace that should be provided in the two emerging smaller centres of Manor House and Hackney Wick, which formed part of the London 2012 Olympic and Legacy Masterplan Framework boundary.

The London Borough of Hackney had been preparing AAPs for its key centres for a number of years, and the Council instructed Carter Jonas to provide planning and commercial advice on whether the retail and mixed use opportunities that had been identified before the impact of the economic recession were still appropriate, viable and deliverable. As part of this work we also assessed the potential economic and commercial capacity for new retail and commercial leisure development focused on Dalston Junction and Hackney Central stations. One of the key outputs of the study included a town centre management ‘toolkit’ for Dalston and Hackney Central which provided ‘best practice’ advice on how to manage, market, fund and deliver new retail and leisure opportunities in the Borough’s main centres.