Nexus Planning expands Birmingham office and Regeneration remit

BIRMINGHAM, UK: Nexus Planning announces it has expanded its Midlands division, welcoming Elisabeth Pywell as Associate Director to its growing Birmingham office. Beth joins from CBRE and is an award-winning planning consultant, with significant Regeneration planning expertise across the Midlands and South West.

Nexus Planning’s Birmingham office has been in operation since 2022 and has welcomed two new starters this year: Beth Pywell and Assistant Planner, Aadil Ijaz. They join the wider team – Roger Tustain, Managing Director; Connor Shingler, Senior Planner; Andrew Somerville, Associate Director, and Gemma Williams, Regional Operations Executive – who collectively have 100 years’ experience across Regeneration, Retail & Leisure and Strategic Land Planning.

The growing Midlands division draws on sectoral experts across the UK in Nexus Planning’s other regional offices, including Manchester, London, Reading and Bristol. The Birmingham team is involved in a number of major strategic land projects throughout the region and has led on currently submitted strategic employment-led planning applications comprising up to 3,000,000 million sq ft of innovation floorspace for the University of Warwick, and 800,000 sq ft of commercial floorspace at J12 of the M40 for CEG. 

In addition, Nexus Birmingham is promoting significant residential led sites in Solihull, Warwick, Bromsgrove, Stratford-upon-Avon, West Oxfordshire, South Warwickshire, Lichfield, Northamptonshire, Rugby and Staffordshire. The regional division has also advised Birmingham City Council in respect of retail and town centre planning policy matters, through the preparation of their most recent Retail and Leisure Study.

About Beth Pywell

Beth works with a variety of public and private sector clients on sites of varying scales across the UK, with a particular focus on the Midlands. Her consultancy experience spans a range of sectors, including advising on and preparing Estate and site specific planning strategies; preparation, management of and coordination of major and minor planning applications; advising on the planning potential of sites, and land promotion through the preparation and submission of written representations to emerging Local Plans. 

Beth has extensive experience of working with residential and education providers including Calthorpe Estates, Spitfire Homes, Clifton College and the University of Southampton. Other recent clients include industrial and infrastructure providers: Arvato, Manchester Airport Group, Network Rail and HS2 – as well as a number of high-street banks including Lloyds, TSB and HSBC. 

Beth won the WATC Rising Star Award in 2020 and the Midlands PROPS Rising Star Award in 2023. Alongside her role at Nexus Planning, Beth is a member of Women in Planning’s National Mentoring Committee and a former chair of the West Midlands Branch. Beth is also an RTPI APC Assessor.

Beth Pywell, Associate Director at Nexus Planning Birmingham, comments: “It’s an exciting time to be Planning in Birmingham and the wider Midlands and I am thrilled to join a progressive business with exciting growth aspirations. The City is seeing major growth both upwards and outwards, with recent approvals such as Ryland Estates Ltd’s ‘Trifecta’ tower another addition to Birmingham’s growing skyline at 40-storeys, as well as the WMCA’s recent announcement for the new tram route which will extend the network to East Birmingham. The new tram network is expected to kickstart Birmingham’s Sports Quarter and unlock wider investment, which will continue to promote Birmingham as a City of Growth. 

“The City has changed so much in recent years and it is fantastic to see support from Birmingham City Council in driving investment to support key economic sectors, such as the Birmingham Knowledge Quarter which is located within the West Midlands Investment Zone, in addition to transport infrastructure.”

Roger Tustain, Nexus Planning MD, adds: “I am delighted that Beth is joining our growing team in Birmingham. Whilst the team has been successful in growing its portfolio of strategic employment and residential projects within the region, Beth’s experience in the delivery of urban development schemes will strengthen our ability to support clients within the growing urban regeneration sector in Birmingham and other major urban centres within the region.”

More details on Nexus Birmingham’s recent projects

• University of Warwick, Wellesbourne Campus – After successfully working with the Council to produce and subsequently adopt a Supplementary Planning Document, Nexus submitted an outline application for University of Warwick, Wellesbourne Innovation Campus. This scheme will provide up to 280,000 sq.m (gross) of laboratory, offices and light industrial floorspace and a proportion of ancillary retail, food and drink, hotel, gym, maintenance accommodation and/or crèche floorspace. This regionally significant project will boost the local economy and support the growth of knowledge-based and other high-value added sectors within Stratford.
• J12, Gaydon – Nexus submitted a speculative hybrid application for a large-scale employment development adjacent to Junction 12 of the M40, due to be determined in the Autumn. The development makes provision for up to 80,000sqm of B2/B8 floorspace and will be occupied by a Warwickshire based automotive operator.  
• Addenbrooke House – Nexus successfully secured planning permission for the change of use and refurbishment of Addenbrooke House into a sixth form centre to be occupied by Telford College. The scheme sought to retrofit Addenbrooke House from an unattractive building of low architectural value to a well-designed key gateway building for the wider Station Quarter redevelopment.
• Dairy House Farm – Nexus promoted and secured an allocation within the local plan for approximately 400 homes in Grendon, North Warwickshire for a landowner client. Nexus has recently submitted an outline planning application for Phase 1 which will provide approximately 70 new homes, extensive open space and sustainable drainage systems. 
• Gaydon Lighthorne Heath New settlement – Nexus identified the opportunity and promoted the site for 3,000 dwellings and 100 Ha of employment land through the Stratford on Avon Local Plan securing planning permission in 2016. The site has since delivered up to approximately 1,500 dwellings with work on a major District Centre to commence next year.
• Carterton, West Oxfordshire – Nexus is promoting 3000 new dwellings and 50Ha of employment land for allocation in the emerging West Oxfordshire Local Plan.