LCA has acted as the full service communications advisor to Quintain Estates and Development plc (QED) for the £1.3bn regeneration of Wembley since QED bought land at Wembley in 2001.

Our first task was to manage the announcement of the initial major land acquisition at Wembley – 44 acres surrounding the national stadium. This required careful positioning in order to draw a distinction between the redevelopment of the stadium itself, which was at that stage still unconfirmed and the development of the land around it. This story was sold in off the back of the Stadium scenario to national, regional and local media with different messages at each level. The local paper ran a front page about the relevant QED director under the headline “Is this the man who will save Wembley?”

Following the announcement, LCA worked with QED senior directors to establish a public affairs strategy, recommending a high profile, two-stage public consultation exercise to introduce QED to the community and set out early concepts, before then consulting on the emerging plans themselves.

LCA prepared the key messages and a ‘vision document’, drafted exhibition material, working with the selected design agency, prepared community focused information leaflets and comments cards and put in place promotional activities to push the exhibitions. LCA also organised events for key stakeholders, oversaw logistical arrangements with support from QED and trained those staffing the exhibition.

Two exhibitions were held over a four month period, and they were taken to numerous community events and meetings, in addition to private briefings with key stakeholders. LCA developed good working relationships with the Council, the LDA and Wembley National Stadium Ltd and managed the announcement of the submission of the planning application itself. In addition, we organised a third community consultation event and exhibition to display the planning application materials during the period of the statutory consultation itself.

In total, nearly 4,000 people engaged in the process, with overwhelming, quantifiable support for the proposals and very supportive local and trade press coverage. The officers’ report recommending the grant of planning permission included only nine objections from the local community – an astonishing result considering the scale of change proposed within a heavily residential area. Brent Council’s planning committee resolved to grant consent in June 2004. The green light from the Mayor of London followed only one month later, with no conditions imposed and Government approved the scheme shortly thereafter.

Wembley is firmly established as one of the major London development projects and Quintain as one of the most important regeneration specialists in London.