High Street: How our town centres can bounce back from the retail crisis

David Rudlin is a leading urbanist and author of the book Climax City, winner of Urban Design Group Book of the Year in 2020. He was a director of URBED for more than 30 years and is now Director of Urbanism at BDP. He is also a past Chair of the Academy of Urbanism and won the Wolfson Economics Prize in 2014. Together with Vicky Payne he has recently completed the National Model Design Code for the Government.

Vicky Payne is a planner and urban designer working as Strategy, Research and Engagement Lead at the Quality of Life Foundation. She has extensive consultancy experience in strategic planning and urban design, including work with URBED on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and National Model Design Code. She is a regular contributor to the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast and has written for professional journals and her own blog.

Dr Lucy Montague is Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture and Programme Leader of the MA Architecture & Urbanism. She researches widely across urban design and has particular expertise in research with, for and through practice. In 2019, Lucy founded the innovative URBED+ for research, advocacy and public engagement in urban design. She has previously held positions at The Bartlett, Huddersfield and Edinburgh, and worked internationally for consultancies in masterplanning, regeneration, retail and residential.