25 years and counting…
25 years and counting – celebrating major milestone with unique Homes England relationship, prestigious industry appointments and other major work wins
AMION Consulting is marking the start of 2025 with a series of big announcements.
The economics advisory consultancy started the year with a highly competitive appointment onto the new £15 million Homes England Strategic Research, Economics and Evaluation Framework, and is the only firm to have been a member of the framework since its start in 2000. Membership of the framework, which can be used by any public sector organisation, is seen as the hallmark of quality within the economic development sector. Under past frameworks, AMION has helped to produce several industry-standard economics policy guides such as the pioneering Additionality Guide, now used across the globe to assess the real, additional impact of public interventions.
In addition, AMION was selected to conduct the official economic impact assessment for Bradford City of Culture 2025. With over 1,000 events taking place, the year-long event is anticipated to provide a long-lasting boost to economic growth in Bradford and West Yorkshire. AMION’s innovative two-year study will not only assess the short-term economic impacts associated with events but will rigorously evaluate the longer-term legacy impacts around jobs, GVA, tourism, volunteering and an improved city image.
January has also seen AMION pick up a flurry of new appointments right across the UK including Aston Villa Football Club, Liverpool John Moores University, Manchester City Council, Dudley Council, South Yorkshire Combined Authority, West of England Combined Authority and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
During 2025, AMION will continue to support some of the country’s biggest economic development and regeneration projects including the £3.9 billion Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent, the £1.9 billion Smithfield development in Birmingham and the £1.0 billion Investment Zone in Wrexham and Flintshire.
This year also marks the start of director, Simon Dancer’s tenure on the Board of Institute of Economic Development (IED) – the UK’s leading professional body for economic development and regeneration practitioners. Simon added: “With over 25 years’ experience under my belt, 16 in the public sector and now having established myself with AMION, putting myself forward for the IED Board felt like a natural next step. I see the IED as the kitemark for our profession and I’m looking forward to supporting the wider profession in its growth and development.”
And finally, the consultancy is marking a major milestone this year as it celebrates 25 years in business. Graham Russell, Chief Executive said: “We are delighted to mark our 25th anniversary in business. For a quarter of a century, we’ve been building our reputation in the economic development and regeneration sector to become trusted advisors and nationally recognised experts. Whilst we’re celebrating our own milestone as a business, it’s all thanks to the outstanding talent we have across our team who consistently deliver rigorous and innovative work for our clients. It’s a credit to them that we’ve been able to develop long-lasting client partnerships over the last 25 years.”