URSUS has been a member of each of the last three of the Homes England’s retained Economics Panels – and several members of our team were also on earlier Panels too. We have appraised a range of housing, infrastructure, and regeneration projects to Treasury ‘Green Book’ and similar standards, to help inform major investment and acquisition decisions. We have also undertaken ‘lessons learned’ ex post assessments for the agency and Government. Most recently appraisals have included assessing and analysing business cases of projects for grant aid and conducting an evaluation for an ongoing (and long term) housing redevelopment scheme in East London.

We worked with ERM and the Government of Tanzania to assess the strategic economic and social impacts of long-term development and conservation strategies for the Rufiji watershed – a huge area of unparalleled ecological value, water resources and agricultural and tourism potential. We compared 20 year strategies for different scenarios including large scale hydro, intensive agriculture, and sustainable farming and ecotourism - selected as the preferred strategy.

Over a number of years, we have worked with organisations including the Land Trust, Groundwork and Local Authorities to develop sustainable strategies for developing green and blue infrastructure – including market research, stakeholder consultation and preparation of business plans for local trusts or enterprises. We work with clients to develop Paying for Ecosystem Services (PES) pilots or biodiversity offsets to help deliver sustainable land uses.