We worked in collaboration with 27 Sheffield public sector organisations to deliver this ambitious government-backed project. By using our intuitive urban and spatial data analytics to foster meaningful collaboration, we’re creating long-term positive change for the people of our region.
Sheffield Place Pilots
- Client: Sheffield City Council
- Partners: RLB, Akerlof
- Location: Sheffield City
- Value: £196,616
Services
- Data analytics
- Digital
Joining the dots
Our urban and spatial data analytics team, working alongside RLB and Akerlof, was commissioned by Sheffield City Council to help them deliver the UK government’s innovative Place Pilots programme.
Our team worked in collaboration with the Council and 26 public sector organisations across Sheffield, delivering an analytical digital platform that integrated asset data from all 27 partners for the combined Sheffield public estate.
This enabled the Council and their partners to see the full picture – intuitively navigate complex estate planning challenges, discover where the greatest regional impact could be achieved, and identify the strongest opportunities for strategic collaboration.
Above: Regional assets and opportunities, prioritised using client's own data and our analytical expertise
Left: Regional assets and opportunities, prioritised using client's own data and our analytical expertise
Data analytics in practice
Using GIS mapping, bespoke prioritisation matrices, and opportunity-identification models, we used our estate intelligence platform HLM Place to highlight which of the 27 organisations shared ambitions could benefit from co-location, land assembly, or coordinated investment.
The dashboard allowed all partners to interrogate the same evidence base, understand constraints, compare options objectively, and build a shared understanding of how the public estate functions as a whole.
We then carried out workshops to identify common priorities and issues, bringing together leaders to discuss how their property portfolios could complement each other.
Bringing our expert consultancy together with the HLM Place smart dashboard allows us to easily navigate complex information and to facilitate collaboration. We can identify needs, opportunity and potential. And most importantly, we’re able to tell the story of places and how people use spaces.
Delia Harmston Studio Director
Above: HLM Place interactive dashboard
Right: HLM Place interactive dashboard
Real world impact
Our project has been commended by the Cabinet Office for our innovative platform HLM Place, which was key to enabling greater collaboration across the public sector, a core aim of the Place Pilots programme.
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) has used our dashboard to move away from siloed asset management to an integrated city-wide view. SYMCA are assessing bus depots across the region, evaluating electric vehicle charging potential, land disposals, and acquisition opportunities.
Local NHS partners are also exploring HLM Place to coordinate their estate strategies.
HLM Place has been invaluable in working collaboratively to easily identify potential locations in public ownership across Sheffield, facilitating easy navigation of complex estates information. Demonstrating the data in a format that was easy to interpret and showed the best opportunities across the city to facilitate the required change, resulted in a much more effective use of officer time.
Sean McLean Director of Regeneration and Development - Sheffield City Council
Place Pilots: Public Property in Place
The Place Pilots: Public Property in Place programme is a UK Cabinet office initiative launched in 2024, and delivered through the One Public Estate programme. The overall ambition of the programme was to see a ‘smaller, better, greener’ public estate, delivered through fostering collaboration across the public sector, particularly between local and central government bodies to help drive and support local plans and ambitions.
Five geographical place pilot areas were selected (including Sheffield) to explore opportunities to optimise investment, and support excellent public services through identification of opportunities for co-location, property disposals and relocations, land assembly, and other multi-portfolio collaboration across regions.
The dashboard has shifted public sector thinking in Sheffield towards collaborative, evidence-led strategic planning and service delivery, by positioning data as a shared strategic asset rather than a siloed resource. It has enabled a more holistic approach to spatial planning, helping organisations align estate decisions with social and economic needs across the city. While tailored to Sheffield, the dashboard’s vision, processes, and structure are replicable and could be adopted by other local authorities or regions to make better use of existing data.
Steer Economic Development for One Public Estate Place Pilots evaluation report
