Receiving planning consent for a project is always a huge milestone and reason to celebrate; so receiving two consents in one week is a really big deal! In this interview with Tim Burke at EG, our managing director Damien Sharkey discusses our two latest planning consents for Wood Lane in London and Beaverhall Road in Edinburgh - and how HUB is bringing forward third generation BTR.

"These projects demonstrate how the business has evolved in the three and a half years since I returned as managing director,” he says of last week’s approvals.

“We were one of the first movers in the build-to-rent space nine years ago. BTR didn’t exist, it was PRS [private rented sector] at the time. We call that first-generation build-to-rent. Second generation build-to-rent is the schemes we are competing today, but we see third-generation build-to-rent as post-pandemic living."

Damien goes on to discuss the role of community engagement, how developers need to work with planning departments, and how speeding up the process overall would help improve viability, which in turn would help deliver against ESG targets.

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