SLR to unearth developer opportunities across the Midlands
Sustainability consultancy SLR Consulting has expanded its offering across the Midlands with the launch of a new archaeology hub. The move comes amid increasing demand for heritage services across the region.
In 2024, SLR Consulting acquired Wardell Armstrong – gaining a full field of experts with a combined team of over 70. This national network includes the team behind the globally acclaimed ‘Uncovering Roman Carlisle’ project – an award-winning, internationally significant excavation that discovered a high-status imperial complex on Hadrian’s Wall that featured on National Geographic.
Now, the firm has spread that growth into the Midlands, in a move the firm says “bridges a critical geographic gap”, bringing a tier-one fieldwork capability and massive infrastructure experience directly to local regional developers to meet growing demand.
Rory Bates, built environment sector lead for Europe at SLR Consulting, commented, “Expanding our archaeology team in the Midlands is a pragmatic step to meet growing regional developer demand. Our clients navigate complex planning and risk environments, and having a dedicated team that provides both consultancy and fieldwork locally is a major advantage. By combining this hands-on heritage expertise with our broader built environment disciplines – like GIS and environmental advisory – we can help de-risk projects early on, ensuring commercial developments progress smoothly while still delivering real social value and community benefit.”
Leading the expansion is Gareth Davies, who joins as archaeology technical director. With three decades of commercial and academic experience, he will head up the newly integrated Midlands team across Nottingham and Birmingham. He is joined by GIS specialist Ben Turner and senior archaeologist Jessica Stevens, further strengthening SLR’s regional capability.
Davies added, “I have joined SLR at an exciting time for the business as it continues to grow its archaeological offering both across the Midlands and nationally… Commercial archaeology shouldn’t just be a compliance box to tick; we are demonstrating how archaeological data can actively inform design, environmental improvements and habitat data. As the Midlands team continues to expand, we’re focused on maintaining the quality and character of our service, while demonstrating how archaeology can contribute positively to areas such as social value, heritage engagement and sustainable development.”
Headquartered in the UK, SLR is a global environmental and advisory consultancy, with a team of more than 5,000 professionals operating from a network of offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Operating across more than 50 technical disciplines, the firm works with clients in business, regulatory and government settings to navigate the rapidly-shifting context of sustainable business.
