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Our April 2026 Newsletter

The Brookbanks Difference / News / Our April 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to our April 2026 newsletter. In this month's Brookbanks newsletter, learn more about how high-rise developments can be made more deliverable, with guidance on how you can reduce risk and protect viability. We're also looking back on our April webinar, where Annabel Le Lohe and Katherine Peers gave a rundown of Environmental Impact Assessments and how coordination can make a real impact on project delivery. Plus, there's a recap of this month's podcasts featuring two special guests. Paul Smith, Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group, and Tom Park, Associate Development Director at Caddick Developments. Also, find out which members of our team will be at UKREiiF as well as more about the CPD event we're co-hosting with the LPDF in May.

Webinar: Coordination for EIAs

This month, our lunchtime webinar was hosted by Annabel Le Lohe and Katherine Peers, who gave a rundown of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).

With extra insight from both a planning and specialist coordinator perspective, they talked through:

  • How to get the brief right for Environmental Impact Assessments
  • When you should begin EIAs
  • The common pitfalls projects fall into that can cause hold-ups
  • What the transition to outcomes-based assessments means for projects

If you missed it, watch back now via our YouTube channel to learn more about Environmental Impact Assessments more generally or to boost assessment coordination for your projects.

Watch back now

Making High Rise Developments Deliverable

High‑rise developments rarely fail through lack of ambition, but through risks that are identified too late. When planning, infrastructure, fire strategy, servicing and buildability are treated as separate exercises, schemes often look strong in concept but weaken rapidly at delivery, leading to redesign, delays and value erosion.

In our latest article, we explore why early, joined‑up thinking is essential for tall buildings, and how front‑end due diligence and integrated strategy can reduce risk, protect viability and create schemes that are genuinely deliverable.

Read the full article
A Brookbanks construction site.

April Podcasts by Brookbanks

This month, we had not one but two special guests join us on our podcast.

Paul Smith, Managing Director at The Strategic Land Group, joined Ben Wakeling to explore why we should be building homes at scale, how political and economic shifts have changed the country’s housing trajectory, and why today’s challenges are rooted in both historical decisions and modern pressures.

In episode two, Mat Capper, Director of Utilities and Jack Kenny, Associate Director of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at Brookbanks, were joined by Tom Park, Associate Development Director at Caddick Developments. Their episode took a look at how energy pressures are impacting developments in the industry and logistics sector, and explored how these specific challenges can be tackled, outlining how projects can have the best chance of success.

Watch all our previous episodes on our YouTube channel to learn more about the latest industry updates and hear insights into planning, engineering, design, and infrastructure delivery.

Upcoming Events for Next Month

There’s less than a month to go until we will be at UKREiiF.

If you’d like to book a catch-up with any of our team members who will be attending, please reach out to them on LinkedIn or email us, and we’ll put you in touch.

CPD & Spring Drinks with LPDF

We’re really pleased to be partnering with the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) to host a CPD and Spring Drinks event in Manchester in May.

The event will be a great chance to learn more about best practices and techniques that enhance the value of strategic developments and to network over drinks.

Limited places are available, so email the LPDF now to book your place.

Email: info@lpdf.co.uk

Book Your Place
An advert for the Northern CPD Event and Spring Drinks being hosted by Brookbanks and the LPDF. The advert lists the the event as being on the 13th May 2026 at Cloud23, Manchester Deansgate Hotel. The words 'Book your place at info@lpdf.co.uk' are included in the footer.

Let’s Have a Catch-up

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter.

We work across the UK and are always happy to connect, either in person or online, to chat about industry challenges, policy updates, or how we can help with a project.

Drop Owen Smith, our Client Relationship Manager, an email and he will happily introduce you to any of our team.

Email: owen.smith@brookbanks.com

 

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The Risk of Stalling Healthcare Projects

May 12, 2026

The Risks Stalling Healthcare Projects There's a version of every healthcare project that looks deliverable on paper. The site sits within the right catchment. It's in the strategic outline case. The ICS has signed off on the clinical model, the architects have done something genuinely thoughtful with the brief, and the project team is cautiously optimistic about hitting the OBC submission window. Then the ground investigation comes back… or the highways authority raises a junction capacity objection that nobody reviewed thoroughly during site selection. Or the drainage strategy is finalised two weeks before the planning committee, and the mitigation required has discreetly added seven figures to a capital budget that is already full of assumptions. This might be “just how things are”, but it’s important to remember that healthcare projects carry specific consequences that a delayed commercial scheme may not have.

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Mitigating the Impact of Global Uncertainty

April 30, 2026

Rising geopolitical tension does not affect development viability in isolation, but through increasing pressure on energy prices, supply chains and the cost of energy‑intensive materials. Where schemes are progressed on assumptions made under more stable conditions, these pressures can quickly challenge margins, appraisals and deliverability, particularly in a flat housing market. Our article looks at how developers can respond to build cost volatility in a more informed and proportionate way. Drawing on our specialists' experience, it explores how early coordination, design‑led value engineering and integrated decision‑making can help manage cost risk, protect scheme viability and avoid short‑term measures that compromise long‑term quality and value.

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