Strategy, policy and research

Governments and local authorities around the world are increasingly mandating that investment in (or procurement of) major transport, infrastructure and developments should be the catalyst for positive social change. To guarantee success, any project, whether a road or railway, new city precinct, housing development or supply chain must meet the needs of the community and other stakeholders it impacts. Benefits include supporting regional growth, creating healthier, safer and more resilient communities and protecting the environment, climate and biodiversity.

WSP creates positive impacts for communities and the environment by defining and shaping projects collaboratively with our clients, across both the public sector and private corporations. We undertake social research, measure social value, conduct community engagement and develop strategies and policies to help our clients optimise the delivery and performance of their projects while building in opportunities to achieve positive social change for communities. Actions are tailored and relevant to the requirements of the local area and population. This may translate to wellbeing, good quality and affordable housing, growth of the local economy and the creation of fairly-rewarded and stable jobs, targeted opportunities for education and skills development, cultural opportunities, accessible public transport, resilience, environmental protection, or all of the above.

We work with our clients from the early conceptual stages of their project, helping them to refine their project objectives to optimize social value. Through our deep technical expertise in social sciences, we bring forth the human dimension of any investment in infrastructure or property to ensure it is central to the planning and delivery strategy. To ensure buy-in among the community and key stakeholders, we undertake social needs assessments, research and engagement. Our teams may also use future-ready tools and techniques to help participants define their thinking around trends that may be important long-term.

Our organizational and governance specialists work in partnership with our clients to design strategy and policy solutions and help them navigate the often complex project processes for successful implementation. Our teams provide leadership, policy guidance, analysis, research, innovation and technical advice. They develop regulatory policy and the frameworks to advance best practice and process. Our advice can include creating optimal organisational structures for our clients to deliver their projects; undertaking cost-benefits analyses to justify investment and acquire funding; exploring accelerated project delivery strategies and optimizing environmental reviews and planning application processes to help accelerate project delivery and reduce cost. We also help our clients identify partnerships with community organisations such as housing associations and organisations that can facilitate employment for indigenous populations or ageing or young people to optimise local social value.

Our work includes involvement in masterplanning, vision and place planning, often coupled with transport planning and ensuring planning codes are fit for purpose.

Our experts work with clients to formulate effective and appropriate strategies to meet current and future growth, economic development and sustainability challenges, helping to drive urban and regional growth.

We support clients to maximize the socio-economic benefits of major investments through the development of business cases and cost benefit analyses. For instance, to calculate whether the financial cost of a transport investment, such as refurbishing railway tracks between two centres, can be offset by the social gains from creating employment opportunities. We undertake analyses and studies of the current state and use a range of modelling tools and methods to calculate the value of the proposed change in terms of its social benefits.

Part of creating resilient, successful communities is to plan for extreme weather events and natural disasters as well as long-term climate trends. Whether we are helping our clients plan a new residential development or expand a regional transportation hub, planning for net zero is integral to the project’s long-term success. We draw on our unparalleled expertise in social development, sustainability and decarbonisation, transport, infrastructure, property and development for advice and technical solutions, which we integrate into our strategies for resilient, future-ready projects that will deliver the highest value in terms of their social, economic and environmental benefits.