We read the record before we form a view.

The method

Every job starts the same way, whatever the question and whoever is asking. We establish what the adopted policy says, what constrains the land, and what the authority has already decided on comparable sites. That is the record. Only then do we form a view.

It sounds obvious. It is not what usually happens. A great deal of planning advice starts from a view and assembles the evidence behind it, which is efficient, reads well, and falls over the moment somebody competent tests it.

Then the case gets built

Establishing the record is the science. It is also only half the job, and on its own it has never won anything. A decision turns on the case constructed from that evidence: which findings carry weight with this authority, the order they are put in, the objections answered before anyone raises them, and the reading of the policy that a committee or an inspector will accept.

That is the craft, and it is where the outcome is actually decided. Two consultants can hold the same file and reach different results, because one of them knows which parts of it matter here.

It is why we do not separate research from advocacy. The analysis is built knowing what the argument will have to do with it, and the argument is built knowing exactly where it is exposed.

What we will not do

We will not build a case the evidence cannot carry. Not out of principle so much as arithmetic: an optimistic appraisal costs the same as an accurate one and is considerably more expensive at appeal. When a site does not work we would rather tell you in week one, and when it does work we would rather spend the budget on winning it.

We will not take a case we are not the right people for. If your question needs a specialist we do not have, we will say so rather than learn on your budget.

Research as a habit, not a service line

We keep our own record of what the planning system decides and read it against the wider economy. Some of that turns into published research, which is the only honest way to claim an edge in analysis. Most of it just makes the advice better.

Where we sit

Flux Dynamics Planning is part of Flux Dynamics Ltd. The statutory company details are on the legal page.

Our team has worked on New Eastern Villages in Swindon, one of the largest urban extensions in the country, where the first phase holds outline consent for up to 1,550 homes. That scheme is set out in full on the case page.