Your trusted advisors in housing, planning, and custom build delivery.
Elsworth Consulting is a specialist planning and housing consultancy delivering expert advice across the planning and housebuilding industry, with a focus on custom build project delivery.
​
Led by respected industry professionals Mario Wolf and Mark Stevenson, we help unlock development opportunities on sites of all scales, shape housing policy, and support the delivery of high-quality homes.
​
We offer tailored consultancy services to public and private sector clients, combining deep expertise with hands-on delivery across complex planning applications, regeneration schemes, and other strategic initiatives.
​
With decades of experience spanning central government, consultancy, and the wider housing industry, Elsworth Consulting delivers clear, confident guidance that gets results for our clients.
​​​​
Contact us to find out how we can support your project.
What we do.
Elsworth Consulting delivers high-calibre, tailored advisory services which span planning, housing strategy, and sustainable development. Our focus lies in bringing expert support to unlock challenging sites, shaping national and local housing policy, and advancing self and custom build delivery at every level, from local communities to government. With specialist knowledge of timber building systems and unrivalled experience in shaping public policy for the self-build and custom build market, we provide strategic advice that drives innovation and unlocks value.
Our senior-level team also collaborates across industry sectors and with aligned consultants to support clients at every stage of the development process, including market analysis.
Our clients include developers, landowners, local authorities and central government.
​
We specialise in:
​
-
Planning & Development Analysis - Planning appraisals and applications, stakeholder engagement, Section 106 preparation and negotiation, CIL exemption strategies, discharge of planning conditions, monitoring delivery and supporting planning appeals.
​
-
Housing Strategy & Delivery Models - Innovative custom build and affordable housing strategies, bespoke self-build delivery frameworks, mixed-tenure plans and market analysis.
​
-
Planning Policy Insight & Representation - Detailed analysis of national and local policy, including NPPF/NPPG interpretation, preparation of design codes and evolving legislation, with sharp understanding of current and emerging policy, legislation and the underpinning political drivers.
​
-
Self & Custom Build Delivery - Support for landowners, developers, local authorities, and community groups to deliver self-commissioned homes at scale, structuring compliant, viable, and locally supported schemes, including site health checks, implementation monitoring and design code compliance checks. We also offer bespoke capacity building workshops to our clients to help them better understand how their schemes can be delivered effectively.
​
-
Governance, NED and Strategic Leadership - Senior board-level advisory, mentoring, and representation across development, housing innovation, and planning governance.
How we work.
From insight to delivery, we tailor our consultancy services to suit each client’s needs, project scale and development context. Our process is structured, collaborative and outcome focused.
​
Our approach:​​
​
1. Discovery & Insight
-
Mapping your project objectives, policy context, risks and commercial goals.
-
Deliverables: project brief, risk/opportunity SWOT, timeline, stakeholder map, and delivery routes.
​
2. Strategy & Design
-
Each consultancy service is tailored, whether it’s Planning Appeal evidence, a Local Plan representation, Design Code compliance checklist, development delivery model or governance process; and our strategies are grounded in legislation, precedent, and deliverability.
​
3. Engagement & Delivery
-
We lead planning and stakeholder processes directly, from pre-application enquiries through to approval and discharge of conditions.
-
Where needed, we mobilise parliamentary engagement, community liaison, and technical specialists.
​
4. Governance & Evaluation
-
We secure robust governance inputs: dashboards, KPIs, post-project learning, and board-level reporting for long-term project resilience.
​
Why work with us?
INDUSTRY-LEADING EXPERTISE
We uniquely blend commercial delivery skills with planning acumen and direct access to government networks.
CUTTING EDGE POLICY KNOWLEDGE
We remain ahead of evolving legislation and policy shifts - offering forward-thinking, informed guidance.
DEDICATED SENIOR LEVEL INPUT
Projects are always led by a Principal Consultant, not junior associates, offering you direct, senior-level advice at exceptional value.
REAL-WORLD DELIVERY EXPERIENCE
Our work is grounded in delivery, from building homes to changing national policy, not just consultancy theory.
UNMATCHED LOCAL AUTHORITY INTELLIGENCE
We track and interpret self/custom build housing market and related local plan behaviours across the UK, enabling quicker, more confident decisions.
ACCESS TO A TRUSTED NETWORK
We offer curated access to dependable legal, design, economic and technical partners.
