Progress Over Paperwork - Introducing Landscape Ally
The pre-app was pencilled for Thursday. Then it slipped. An unscheduled Design Review Panel was requested. Stakeholder comments arrived a fortnight later than planned. Meanwhile, your inbox pinged with a familiar message: a fee uplift request tied to scope caveats you barely remember agreeing months ago. No villains here, just a predictable clash between fixed-scope appointments and the messy reality of delivering development.
Landscape Ally was created for that reality. We offer flexible, subscription-style landscape support that gives you certainty of access to expertise, not false certainty about every future task. When projects shift, as they always do, you shouldn’t lose momentum.
The Familiar Pattern
A client issues a brief, a designer returns a fixed fee for a defined scope (sometimes less so), and everyone hopes the map matches the terrain. But development is dynamic. A pre-app gets moved. A follow-up is requested. Highways comments trigger a layout tweak. A Design Review Panel asks for an option no one foresaw. The project hasn’t gone wrong; it’s simply doing what projects do: change.
Traditional appointments strain under that change. Clients wrestle with scope exclusions and unplanned uplifts. Designers protect their businesses with caveats. Friction grows, time slips and the team spends precious energy negotiating scope instead of solving problems.
Good vs Good
From the consultant’s side, an uplift request isn’t opportunism, it’s survival. You priced for a route that has since diverted. From the client’s side, the pressure is relentless: costs rise weekly, programmes compress, approvals multiply. No brief can list every contingency yet fixed-scope contracts try. The result is two reasonable positions colliding in an unreasonable process.
A Different Pact
Landscape Ally’s answer is simple: stop pretending uncertainty can be designed away. Instead, fix what actually helps, access to the right expertise at the right moments. Our subscription-style Support Plans provide a bank of senior professional time that can flex across tasks and across projects, within a generous usage window. When the route changes, your landscape support doesn’t need to be renegotiated, it simply pivots with you.
How the Support Plans Work
Three core tiers. Choose the plan with the number of days you want to draw down within a set period. We’ll recommend a tier based on your goals and programme.
Flexible drawdown. Use time as the project requires, from early concept strategy and design optioneering through to RIBA Stage 4 technical design; Stage 5/site support is available by arrangement.
Cross-project by design. Allocate days to one scheme or several. Shift focus week to week as priorities evolve.
Generous windows & rollover. Shorter plans have shorter windows; longer plans, longer windows. Purchase a new plan before your window ends and unused time rolls over.
Transparent add-ons. Need a discrete deliverable or tailored plan? (e.g. a planting plan to discharge a condition, UGF/BNG analysis or LVA input) We can price it transparently or deliver it from your plan, your choice.
Who It’s For
Developers who want momentum through pre-apps, DRPs and planning without constant renegotiation.
Architects who need embedded landscape expertise without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Landscape practices that need short-term resource to bridge a recruitment gap or meet a peak in workload.
Planning, transport and engineering consultancies seeking a collaborative landscape partner to complement live projects.
Where We Fit in the Programme
Based in London and operating UK‑wide, we focus on urban residential, mixed-use, education, healthcare and public realm projects. Our sweet spot is RIBA Stages 1-4, where agile input and coordinated detailing make the biggest difference.
What You Get That’s Different
Certainty of access. Your landscape expertise is ‘on tap’ when schedules shift.
Less friction. Fewer scope debates, fewer uplifts, more time designing.
Better collaboration. Because our time can move between projects, we stay aligned with your portfolio priorities rather than a single, rigid scope.
Cost control. You pay for days, not surprises. If an unforeseen task emerges, it draws from your plan rather than triggering a renegotiation.
Senior-led, data-informed delivery. BIM-ready workflows and carbon-conscious design underpin decisions from concept through technical detail.
A Day-to-Day Example
One week you need concept options ahead of a pre-app; the next, technical planting schedules for a Reserved Matters Application; then a quick review to support a highways interface. With a Landscape Ally plan, those shifts don’t require new or separate appointments. You call, we pivot and the project maintains its pace.
Why This Matters Now
Planning routes are longer, engagement cycles broader and technical demands deeper. In this environment, fixed-scope certainty is often an illusion. The real advantage is resilience, a team that adapts as variables evolve. That’s the promise of Landscape Ally: keep the design moving, keep risk visible and keep momentum when it matters most.
The Outcome
Less time negotiating, more time designing. Fewer surprises, clearer decisions. A landscape partner aligned to how projects actually unfold.
Ready to trade scope wrangling for steady progress? Book a call or reach out to explore the right plan for your pipeline.
Email: christopher@landscapeally.co.uk
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Fixed-fee scopes assume a stable list of tasks; when that list changes, fees change. A Landscape Ally plan fixes your access to expertise for a set number of days within a time period, so we can pivot as needs evolve without pausing to renegotiate.
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Yes. Our plans are designed to flex across one or several schemes, ideal for portfolios with shifting priorities.
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Each plan has a generous usage window. Shorter plans mean shorter windows; longer plans, longer windows. If you purchase a new plan before the current window ends, unused time can roll over into your next plan.
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Not on our website. Every engagement starts with a short scoping call. Based on your goals and programme, we’ll provide clear prices for each Support Plan and a recommendation. Pricing scales with commitment, plans with a greater number of days benefit from discounted per-day rates. If you need a discrete deliverable, we’ll price it transparently or deliver it from your plan.
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Urban residential, mixed-use, education, healthcare and public realm across the UK. We typically support RIBA Stages 1–4, from feasibility and options through concept and design development to planning and post-planning packages—culminating in coordinated tender drawings and NBS specifications. Stage 5 (site support/monitoring) is available by arrangement.