International Women's day - Gender Informed Planning Practice

The Planning Consultancy team at WSP, having acquired Indigo Planning in 2019, is one of the leading town planning practices in the country. We have over 30 years’ experience of working on and delivering planning projects throughout the UK with offices in each country. We have offices across the country with over 150 members of staff. This equates to over 500 years of planning experience, which we seek to share on all planning projects and utilise to solve problems and find innovative solutions.

We also have in-house expertise in socioeconomic, public consultation and heritage expertise, together with the wider suite of WSP environmental disciplines that we can utilise for planning projects.   WSP combines the resources and expertise of a leading, town planning practice with a local understanding and a hands-on approach by the project director and project manager.

Helen is a Strategic Planner with over 30 years’ experience working across public and private sectors, both in the UK and internationally. Her specialism includes regeneration, masterplanning, inclusive healthy placemaking, development management, infrastructure planning, strategic policy development, community engagement and service improvement. She has led major development schemes such as Oak Wharf, a canal redevelopment site in Hackney, London and a Model City Plan for over 4 million people in Lagos, Nigeria, and more recently leading on a range of Garden Town developments and urban extensions for mixed use schemes comprising housing, schools and major infrastructure of more than 6,000 dwellings on behalf of Buckinghamshire Council.

She is the Founder and Chair of BAME Planners Network, promoting  diversity and inclusion in the planning profession. She is also an Advisory Board Member for Women in Planning and President of ICOGA Europe (Idia College alumni association). Helen has won several awards and was a judge in the RTPI London Region Awards 2021, RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence in 2020 and 2021.

Helen has been a member of the  RTPI General Assembly since 2019, RTPI Membership Panel (2016-2017), RTPI International Committee (2019), RTPI Membership and Ethics Committee (2020 to date) and was part of the International Strategy working group (2020/21).

Helen is RTPI President 2025. 

Charlotte is a town planner with over 10 years' experience across public, private and third sectors.  She currently works as a Spatial Planning and Design Team Leader at St Albans City and District Council.

Charlotte is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and formerly chaired the London Region (2015), was on the Board of Trustees  (2013-2015).  In 2012, Charlotte co-founded a UK wide network called Women in Planning and is now part of its leadership team. She is also a part-time PhD student at Leeds Beckett University where she is researching women's experience as leaders and managers in the planning profession. She is also on the steering committee for the Academy of Urbanism Young Urbanist network.