About Us

Hewdon Consulting was founded in 2001  as an urban regeneration  consultancy.  As times and policy have changed, what we do has changed as well and we now undertake a much broader range of economic development activity in England and Wales,  but  the way we work has stayed constant:

We work mainly at the interface between the public and private sectors.

We spend as much time being managers as consultants and we have a strong delivery focus:
  • We have strong technical expertise in areas like appraisal and state aid, but we are also good generalists and co-ordinators.
  • We can tackle everything from national policy issues to a drive-through burger bar.
  • We use plain English, we dislike jargon and we are happy to engage with ordinary people.
  • We have worked everywhere from Cornwall to Northumberland and Swansea to Lowestoft, although we have a special fondness for the east of England.

George Bennett is the managing director Hewdon and can be contacted at:

T: 07740 051412
E: gb@hewdon.com

Hewdon Consulting , 124 City Road, London EC1V 2NX

[Nigel Smith and Dominic Williams, the founding directors are now retired.]

Case Studies

Strategic Economic Plan – Lead writer for SEP and Local Growth Fund bid to government

Growing Places Fund – Loan agreements from LEP to highways authority

Growing Places Fund – Loan agreement to private developer to provide spine road to business park with back to back sale of residential land

Growing Places Fund – Loan agreement to housebuilder to finance infrastructure for 200 unit development.

Local Growth Fund – Prioritisation of funding applications for inclusion in bid to government

Local Growth Fund – Appraisal, Heads of terms, state aid advice and due diligence on:

  • £5m highway scheme
  • £20m flood defence scheme
  • £8m rail improvement scheme
  • £10m FE College Expansion

Innovation Centres – Options and Feasibility study, business plan and funding for four university-based STEM centres

Public Works Loan Board – Successful application for local authority consortium for £25m revolving fund at project discount rate

Due diligence, state aid advice and heads of terms for loan to private housebuilder for 140 unit development.

Enterprise Zones – Involvement in three successful applications for Round Two Enterprise Zones.

Enterprise Zones – Wrote three Five Year Implementation Plans

Enterprise Zones –  25 year financial forecasts and feasibility study on funding site infrastructure from retained business rates.

 

What We Do

We can only give a broad outline of what we  do, but we are happy to tackle a wide range of tasks, so if it is not listed here, it is still worth asking us if we can help.

Bids to Central Government

Strategic Economic Plans

Project Discount Rate Loans

Enterprise Zones

LEP and Local Government Programme Management

Project appraisal

Due diligence

Grant agreements

Loan agreements

Local government finance, CIL  and business rates

State aid and European funding

Project Planning and Delivery

Funding bids

Funding contributions packages and mechanisms (CIL, business rates )

Business planning

Corporate structures, governance and compliance

Sector Coverage

Transport Infrastructure

Flood defence

Business and employment

Education

Innovation Centres

Any other business (e.g fish restaurant, butterfly centre, film studio)