Lichfields Newcastle_from left_Harvey Emms with Jonathan Wallace

Leading planning and development consultancy Lichfields has made some key changes at its flagship North East office in Newcastle.

Senior director Harvey Emms has assumed the role of office leader in Newcastle; he succeeds senior director Jonathan Wallace who remains in the office but takes up a position on the firm’s main board.

Emms, who joined Lichfields in 2014 from Newcastle City Council, has a wealth of experience working with both public and private sectors, delivering development plans and large-scale infrastructure projects across the region and Scotland.

He leads the economics team in the Newcastle office and specialises in strategic planning and bringing forward complex urban regeneration schemes. He has also played a key role helping develop regional public transport policy and deliver regional transport projects.

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Commenting on his new role and changes, he said: “While it’s an honour to replace Jonathan and become head of office, it will remain business as usual. Jonathan and I will continue to be client facing and will continue to focus on our strategic projects.

“I will also be focussed on maintaining the steady growth we’ve enjoyed in recent years while also ensuring we continue to deliver the highest quality service to remain market leaders in the North East.”

Emms succeeds Jonathan Wallace as office lead, to coincide with the start of the company’s new financial year. Wallace steps down after more than eight successful years in the role, and will continue to focus on commercial work including town centre regeneration and the ‘levelling up’ agenda.

Lichfields is the pre-eminent planning and development consultancy in the UK with more than 200 people working from a network of nine regional offices. The 41-strong Newcastle office is the largest outside of London.

Lichfields has maintained a resilient performance during the pandemic and sees a resurgent planning sector for the rest of this year and immediate future.

Founded in 1962, Lichfields offers a broad range of planning and development consultancy services including development management, consultation, economics, EIA, heritage, and urban design. Clients include developers, landowners and operators in the housing, retail, leisure, commercial, waste and recycling and infrastructure sectors, as well as local authorities and government bodies.

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