Enabling 101 towns to level up and drive lasting regeneration

Nichols played a key role on the Towns Fund, a £3.6bn programme to enable 101 towns in England to level up and drive long term sustainable economic regeneration. Our team established the Programme Management Office and led rapid project inception. As the programme transitioned from inception to delivery, our people took lead central roles.

Nichols directly supported over a third of the towns included in the programme with strategic and technical advice while planning for and progressing through the Towns Fund stages, including vision development. We brought significant experience of engaging and managing stakeholders across a diversity of sectors, including an understanding of how to navigate the local government landscape.

We provided and coordinated expert technical support on how to set strategy, prioritise projects and engage stakeholders and funders. As the towns received funding deals from central Government, we transitioned our support to provide guidance and strategic advice on developing Green Book compliant business cases and build project initiation capability within the local authority teams that would deliver the projects.

Strategic clarity at the heart of the UK’s low carbon energy sector

Nichols was engaged to undertake a preliminary review of options for the provision of a range of core services in the context of the forthcoming Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage schemes. The output of which would be presented to the Low Carbon Contracts Company Board to assist in defining its future strategy.

We employed a staged approach to delivery, initially determining the available delivery models. We adapted proven public sector appraisal methodologies to fit our client’s requirements and provided a simple, powerful set of assessment criteria aligned to the company’s strategic objectives.

We developed a heatmap model that illustrated the relative risks and opportunities of each pathway against the assessment criteria. We mapped out the critical timelines, dependencies and milestones to enable the Board to identify appropriate timings for next steps. To support the wider client team in further developing the preliminary findings, we provided a detailed report which was fully aligned to the heatmap.

We used a collaborative and open approach with personnel to ensure that they were fully engaged in the process. Nichols provided clarity of the different delivery models available to enable informed decision making. By creating a bespoke set of assessment criteria, we ensured that the review was fully aligned to the client’s strategic objectives. Our work has enabled Low Carbon Contracts Company’s Board to identify foundational activities to help define its future strategy and realise its strategic objectives over the next ten years.

Transforming a vision into London’s greatest railway

Our work delivering the Elizabeth Line transcended decades — Nichols played a central role transforming Crossrail from vision to reality from 1989 until its completion in 2023. We assisted in its creation and helped bring the project to life, throughout an extended development phase where the economic business case was constantly under challenge. We played an important part in securing Royal Assent in 2008 and supported the transition from development to delivery. We were influential in designing the delivery organisation and shaping the Infrastructure Maintenance architecture.

Through our engagement as Transcend Programme Partner from 2009–2023, we acted as strategic advisor and an extension of the client’s team. We committed to delivering the legacy promise of the overall Crossrail programme and worked collaboratively with Crossrail providing leadership, strategic insight and delivery support.

As a long-term partner, we fulfilled critical roles within Crossrail’s senior team integrating our knowledge and experience to deliver goals as part of the team. We built Crossrail’s capacity and capability through a rigorous Delivery Plan that successfully built and deployed skilled teams to fulfil specific requirements whilst flexing to meet changing and emerging needs and sustaining services. We helped navigate the programme forward through systems integration and operational readiness, and supported the recovery from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We worked to empower Crossrail and bring their vision to reality, establishing a culture of constant self-challenge, conducting capability reviews and applying improvement plans. Our collective and individual roles enabled teams to identify and implement the strategic change required to improve performance and maximise capability.

Nichols was integral to the design, delivery, testing and opening of the Elizabeth Line, a lasting legacy to the growth and prosperity of London and the UK.

Building world-class project control capability

Nichols has been providing strategic support to this client for many years. We have enabled them to operate in a resource efficient and sustainable way, providing predictable delivery and increased capability, capacity and competence.

To enable our client to operate their multi £bn programmes in an efficient and sustainable way, we created a roadmap to enhanced performance. We delivered a complexity assessment of current systems and processes, and a capability assessment of their 800 project control staff. Nichols provided interim Heads of Departments and created a development roadmap focused on improving capability and achieving a cohesive, positive culture, detailing steps to achieve outcomes.

We created new central project control functional departments and led the redevelopment of the programme controls system and documentation. This allowed for standardisation across programmes, integration between controls disciplines, and provided the basis for governance. We reviewed and improved the software suite, ensuring stakeholder engagement to secure successful deployment. We designed and implemented a new software system, significantly enhancing existing capability.

Nichols provided strategic advice to our client’s senior team and its Customer to initiate a critical enabling programme. We established the approach for developing and maturing the programme so that it was ready to be placed under contract and defined the programme objectives and outcomes. We provided thought leadership to senior executives and support and mentoring to permanent members of staff.