Be First

Be First is a regeneration company wholly owned by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, operating independently to accelerate growth across the borough. It works as a developer in its own right, as a development manager for the council and commercial partners, and delivers town and country planning and other statutory functions on behalf of the local authority.

At the heart of Be First is an in-house design and sustainability team that works from the earliest stages of a project right through to handover. The team writes strategic briefs, prepares master plans, design codes and supplementary planning documents, and provides client-side design guidance, commissioning and procuring architects and reviewing schemes through to completion. As the team describes it, the work runs from the door handle to the master plan.

Projects span new neighbourhoods, council estate renewal, affordable housing, retrofit and innovative employment space across Barking and Dagenham, including work on the Becontree Estate, Gascoigne West and the Industria stacked-industrial scheme. The team also pilots digital twins and building-performance monitoring to test how completed homes actually perform in use.

This profile accompanies Be First's appearance on the Architecture Social Podcast, where Head of Design Jacob Willson and Associate Director Amandeep Kalra discussed winning work in the public sector, procurement, fees and building an in-house design team.