Carter Jonas has acquired an Oxfordshire planning and development consultancy, Kemp & Kemp, based in Abingdon on Thames.
Kemp&Kemp’s Chris Wilmshurst (left) and Steven Sensecall (right) are teaming up with James Bainbridge at Carter Jonas
Founded in 1954, Kemp & Kemp has an established client base in Oxfordshire and across the UK including a number of landmark developments including the Diamond Synchrotron at Harwell Campus, the Joint European Torus (JET) at Culham Science Centre and Müller UK’s headquarters in Shropshire.
Kemp & Kemp will join Carter Jonas’ national planning and development division, which offers multi-disciplinary advice from offices in London, Cambridge, Leeds, Bath and Winchester, as well as in Oxford. As a result of the move, former Kemp & Kemp partners Steven Sensecall and Chris Wilmshurts join Carter Jonas as partner and consultant respectively.
The addition of Kemp & Kemp, which will now trade as Carter Jonas LLP, and increases the size of Carter Jonas’ planning and development division to over 100 people, which will make it one of the largest in the UK.
Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties are among our most important markets – Mark Granger, Carter Jonas
The division is currently managing projects nationwide for a number of public and private sector clients including the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Buckinghamshire County Council, Welbeck Strategic Land and Wadham College.
The acquisition of Kemp & Kemp is effective from 1 May 2017, from which date Kemp & Kemp will trade as Carter Jonas LLP.
Mark Granger, chief executive at Carter Jonas, said: “The acquisition of Kemp & Kemp highlights Carter Jonas’ continued appetite to invest in our principal regional locations as we continue to build a market-leading position in Oxfordshire and across the UK.
“Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties are among our most important markets and with the addition of the team from Kemp & Kemp we become the largest independent property consultancy practice in the region. We welcome Steven, Chris and the team to Carter Jonas. We look forward to working together to build on the scope and reach of our work for the benefit of new and current clients.”
Latest acquisition
This latest deal is the third in a series of recent acquisitions by Carter Jonas of planning and development businesses. Most recently Carter Jonas acquired New Square Holdings, an acquisition that included Cambridge-based commercial and planning consultancy Januarys, following 2016’s acquisition of London based planning consultancy, Planning Perspectives.
James Bainbridge, head of planning and development at Carter Jonas, added: “The addition of Kemp & Kemp marks an exciting new chapter in the growth of our planning and development division, at both a national and regional level.
“Alongside its experience in residential land promotion, Kemp & Kemp has a strong track record in commercial and institutional consultancy work and has achieved consent for close to a million square feet of new commercial space over the last three years. We will look to harness these additional areas of expertise moving forward as we strengthen our position in the market.”
