Across the two neighbourhoods we evaluated – Somers Town (London Borough of Camden) and Notting Dale (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) – the programme combined community-led projects, public sector delivery and cross-sector partnerships to tackle retrofit, greening, energy, circular economy and air quality in parallel. The scale alone was significant - Notting Dale delivered 58 projects across Phases 1-3 and Somers Town delivered 39.

That created a very practical evaluation problem. Success couldn’t be expressed through one simple lens or one consistent dataset. The programme had been measured through evolving KPI frameworks, baseline data was not always available, and much of the Phase 3 reporting was self-reported by project leads. At the same time, many of the most important outcomes - stronger partnerships, better local capability, more confidence to act, better governance and more durable community ownership - were real but not always easy to quantify.

Our challenge was to cut through that complexity without flattening it - capturing what had been delivered, what had enabled it, and what other places could realistically learn from it.

We used a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative analysis where KPI data was consistent with qualitative insight from interviews and final project reports. Between October 2025 and February 2026, Bioregional and PRD interviewed Phase 3 project leads to understand achievements, human impact, success factors, challenges and lessons learned beyond the numbers alone.

We also helped strengthen the programme’s evaluation capability. The commission included training and upskilling for programme partners, project leads and community organisations, while our wider approach focused on turning shared reflection into usable outputs - including practical guidance, tools and case studies that others can apply.