Neasden Town Centre wins NLA Award for Masterplans and Place Strategies

Neasden Town Centre has been named winner of the Masterplans and Place Strategies category at the NLA Awards 2025, a recognition that celebrates the people, projects and partnerships shaping a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous London.

Delivered for Brent Council, the Neasden Town Centre Placemaking and Sustainability Action Plan is a collaboration between Sanchez Benton Architects, Rumi Bose, Concept Culture and Where Pathways Meet. Together, the team has set out an ambitious yet grounded roadmap to improve health, prosperity and sustainability outcomes in Neasden to 2030 and beyond.

A strategy rooted in everyday life

Neasden faces a complex mix of environmental, social and economic challenges. Heavy traffic, poor air quality, limited green space and a lack of amenities for families, young people and older residents all shape how people experience the town centre. At the same time, Neasden has a strong community spirit and rich cultural heritage that often goes recognised.

The Neasden Town Centre Action Plan responds directly to this context. Developed with local residents, businesses and stakeholders, it sets out a series of practical actions that can be co-authored and co-delivered over the coming years. The strategy focuses on creating safer, greener streets, more welcoming public spaces, better connections, and new opportunities for local enterprise and culture.

Key ambitions include

Community-driven regeneration that builds capacity and legacy rather than imposing change from outside
Greener and better-connected streets and spaces that support climate resilience and everyday wellbeing
Safer, more vibrant places that encourage people to spend time in the town centre
A stronger role for arts, culture and education rooted in Neasden’s musical and cultural history
A town centre that proudly reflects Neasden’s multicultural identity and community pride

This work has already helped unlock a £10.5 million investment, including a Civic Partnership Programme grant from the Mayor of London to deliver the first phase of projects set out in the action plan.

Small interventions, big impact

In announcing Neasden Town Centre as the winner for Masterplans and Place Strategies, the NLA judges highlighted how a series of carefully considered moves in the public realm can add up to meaningful change. The project was praised for its focus on modest interventions that deliver a big impact for local people, with community and partnership at its core.

In a sector where many large-scale strategies never move beyond the report stage, the judges also recognised the plan’s emphasis on long-term stewardship and delivery. Rather than a document that gathers dust, the Neasden Town Centre Action Plan has been designed as a living framework that can guide investment, partnership working and community-led projects over time.

Co-design, collaboration and care

From the outset, co-design and collaboration have been central to the Neasden Town Centre process. The project team worked closely with Brent Council officers and local stakeholders to understand lived experience in the area, drawing on workshops, walkabouts and conversations with residents, businesses and community organisations.

Concept Culture’s role has been to help shape and communicate the story of Neasden’s future in a way that feels rooted, hopeful and actionable. This has included:

Supporting the development of a clear narrative for the town centre that reflects local identity and ambition
Helping to translate technical proposals into accessible language and visual material
Championing community voices and lived experience throughout the process

The result is a strategy that not only sets out what will change on the ground, but also reflects the values of care, partnership and long-term stewardship that underpin the work.

A collective win

For everyone involved, the NLA Award feels like recognition of a truly collective effort. The project brings together Brent Council, led by client Bruna Menegace Varante, Sanchez Benton Architects, Rumi Bose Where Pathways Meet, and Concept Culture, as well as many community members and partners who shaped the vision through their time, insight and creativity.

As our Creative Director, Tanisha Raffiuddin, put it after the ceremony, the announcement came as a genuine surprise - cue a dropped phone, an unfiltered reaction, and a very quick recovery from a nearby colleague who kept filming while the team went up to collect the award. It was a joyful moment that captured the spirit of the whole project - unexpected but hard-won, and shared by many.

Shortly after accepting the award with the team, Tanisha also had the honour of presenting the Partnership of the Year award to Wates Group and the London Borough of Havering, the category of which she was an NLA Expert Assessor. Another reminder of the central role that collaboration plays in delivering fairer, greener and more resilient places across London.

Looking ahead

Winning the NLA Award is an important milestone, but it is also only the beginning. The real measure of success will be felt in the years to come as projects are delivered, new partnerships form, and Neasden’s streets, spaces and stories continue to evolve.

For Concept Culture, this work reinforces our commitment to telling the stories of places that are often on the edge of the spotlight yet full of possibility. We are proud to have played a part in this journey and look forward to supporting Brent Council and the wider team as Neasden Town Centre moves from plan to reality.

If you are working on a place strategy or town centre project and want support with storytelling and communication, we would love to hear from you.

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Concept Culture is the creative agency helping developers, councils, and urban designers lead with place marketing, place branding, and place storytelling that drives investment and builds pride.

From strategy to content creation, we turn places into destinations.

Let’s talk. - https://www.conceptculture.co/contact