Calibro go much further than just the basic service – it’s not just drawing a plan, they are committed to resolving something for you
DPP Planning
Chief Executive Officer
SECTORS
Residential
What this sector is trying to do
Residential development is not a single thing. At one end, volume housebuilders working to programme certainty. At the other, landowners in decade-long promotion strategies. Between them: build-to-rent operators, affordable housing providers and clients assembling mixed-tenure schemes from multiple funding streams. What they share is the need to move planning risk into certainty as early as the evidence allows.
The recurring constraints
The transport, drainage and infrastructure constraints in residential development are familiar to most practitioners. Their interactions are less predictable than they appear. Parking standards that look fixed are negotiable when the evidence is assembled carefully. Flood zone designations on national maps regularly overstate risk on individual sites. Sustainable travel arguments depend on proximity to services that change over time. Adoption thresholds for roads and drainage are applied differently by authorities working from the same national guidance.
Where accumulated knowledge matters
The residential sector is where the deepest body of case history sits. The parking argument developed for a supported living scheme in Bridgend — demonstrating a genuinely reduced demand profile against a standard written for conventional housing — has since informed build-to-rent and extra-care applications across multiple local planning authorities. The flood risk methodology refined on a solar farm in Mid Devon is now applied to residential sites where the national flood map diverges from site conditions. The sector shifts. The thinking does not.
Committed to improving a range of projects
The schemes we’re involved in range in size and complexity, starting with just a few dwellings with simple access and layout considerations; through to large, strategic, mixed-use schemes of 1,200+ dwellings, that require extensive modelling of the wider network and delivery of strategic infrastructure improvements.
Current projects include:
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Where we work
We work across residential, commercial, health, education, infrastructure, renewables, retail and leisure, and wherever work takes us beyond that list. Every project builds on an established body of knowledge: how to use the planning system to a client’s advantage, what creates places that hold their value, and where early decisions protect against risk and leave a legacy that matters beyond completion.
Those learnings cross every sector boundary. What we take from a residential scheme shapes how we approach a commercial one. What we learn in one planning authority informs how we navigate the next. That accumulated intelligence is what you’re drawing on, whatever the brief.
The sector shifts. The thinking doesn’t.
Residential
We’re often involved early in projects, supporting site-finding activities, and moving on to the masterplan process. Schemes range from a few dwellings with simple access and layout considerations, through to large, mixed use schemes requiring modelling of the wider network and strategic infrastructure improvements.
Renewables
We support development for wind, solar and energy-from-waste projects throughout the UK. This includes large scale wind farms to expansive solar schemes in areas of risk of flooding. As a corporate IEMA partner, we understand the specific legal requirements of environmental impact assessment.
Commercial & Industrial
Whether it’s transport planning or highway design, flood risk or drainage strategies, we understand the nuances of industrial and commercial development. We can take a lead role in optimising the masterplan process, support planning with robust evidence, and provide accurate, cost-effective construction designs.
Retail
We’re a trusted partner for a number of regional and national developers, bringing extensive knowledge of commercial development. We enable a scheme to be commercially optimised, understanding the importance of maximising passing trade; while also minimising the severity of associated traffic effects.
Health & Wellbeing
Our team of experts has extensive experience of advising on all types of health and wellbeing facilities. We provide transport planning, highway, flood risk and drainage input across a range of developments, including primary and secondary schools, GP surgeries, pharmacies and dental practices.
Leisure
Every leisure development is different – whether it’s a new campsite, gym or stadium. The journey through the planning system is just the start. We ensure that fundamental engineering principles are ingrained in our solutions, to expedite the design and approval stages, and get contractors on site sooner.
