An employee-owned planning and development consultancy with offices across the UK, advising on planning, heritage, design, environmental assessment and economics.
Turley is a planning and development consultancy. In plain terms, when someone wants to build or change something, such as new homes, a hospital, a steelworks furnace or a city-centre block, the idea usually needs permission from the local council or the government. Turley's people help clients prepare the case, shape the design, and explain to communities and decision makers why a scheme is a good one. Its own recruitment prospectus lists services including planning, environmental impact assessment, heritage, townscape and landscape, design, expert witness work, strategic communications, economics, and sustainability and ESG. It says it works across all development sectors in the UK and Ireland.
The prospectus says the firm is built on more than 40 years of planning consultancy experience. Its stated purpose is "shaping sustainable futures together". It explains that shaping means continually improving processes and outcomes, and that together reflects its collaborative, employee-owned way of working. Its chief executive says the firm aims to "be bold" and to "support brilliance in our people". The prospectus names projects such as 110 The Queen's Walk in London, Paradise in Birmingham, Northern Gateway, and the electric arc furnace at Port Talbot for Tata Steel.
Turley's UK map shows offices in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Derry~Londonderry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton. It also has a Dublin office in Ireland. That spread across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland means a planning career need not be based in London. The prospectus gives no total headcount, so we have not quoted one.
On culture, the firm says it has been employee-owned since 1996 and that its leaders "behave as owners because we are". It says its Charitable Trust, set up in 2008, has donated over one million pounds. It reports CarbonNeutral certification in 2020, Bronze Carbon Literate Organisation accreditation in 2023 and work towards B Corp status, and it names Stonewall, PREACH Inclusion and Real Estate Balance as organisations it belongs to. It says most co-owners spend two to three days a week in the office. These are the company's own claims and we have not checked them independently.
A consultancy like this employs a wide mix of people: town planners, heritage specialists, landscape and townscape experts, urban designers, economists, environmental assessors, communications advisers, and the business support teams that keep offices running. Useful starting subjects include geography, planning, architecture, economics, history and environmental science, but the range of roles means different strengths fit. The firm's own website lists current vacancies and the prospectus is the best place to see how it describes life there.
Website: www.turley.co.uk
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