DP9 believes that it can best serve client objectives by working as closely as possible with the principal and design team from the very outset of each project. At this level, the planning consultant is the developer’s right hand. At the same time, he or she is, more than ever before, potentially an agent of beneficial change and social and economic progress. DP9’s clients are primarily commercially focused but also include schools and cultural institutions such as the Architecture Foundation and Serpentine Gallery – more than a nod, perhaps, to the social responsibilities of planning. But above all, planning is about getting things built, about practical achievement. DP9’s achievements, in so few years, seem considerable but there is nobody in the practice who does not relish the challenges of the years to come.