CLIENT: MINIStry of housing, communities & local government

PROJECT: Night-Time Consumers and Products of Tomorrow

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What were MAKE asked to do?

The MHCLG & The Civic Trust undertook the world’s largest programme of research into the night-time economy lasting three years. As part of this MAKE were asked to leap forward ten years and uncover who would be using our future cities after dark and what types of leisure activities and services they would be looking for. The aim of the work was to help policymakers understand better how to plan town and city centre developments to better meet communities’ needs and to create fit for purpose night time public services.

How did MAKE do it?

  • The team reviewed over 30 sources of ‘future-casting’ data, including work from the Henley Centre for Forecasting, Mintel and Datamonitor.

  • This was combined with interpretation of Census data to understand how the UK population would be changing over the next decade.

  • Finally, the team spoke to a range of 20 interested parties, including policymakers in central government, and those with a deep insight into how cities work architects and masterplanners Irena Bauman and Will Alsop.

What happened next?

CLG and the Civic Trust heavily referenced MAKE’s findings in its overall final report ‘NightVision’ (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12668475/NightVision.pdf). The research secured widespread international interest and has been cited by over 100 councils in developing their evening and night-time economy action plans. It also formed the basis of the Purple Flag project for better town centres at night ( http://www.purpleflag.org.uk).

What unique value did MAKE bring to this project?

There has traditionally been very little use of geo-demographic and consumer data by those seeking to plan night-time economies. The use of population forecasting in this research was the first time that this approach had been used in the UK or it is believed internationally.