Independent community counsel for East London
The voice your project
cannot afford to
overlook.
Considered community engagement for developers and infrastructure operators working across Tower Hamlets and the Isle of Dogs.
Begin a ConversationThe Cost of Getting This Wrong
In Tower Hamlets, the projects that fail
rarely fail on the drawings.
They fail because the community was approached too late, in the wrong order, or not at all. By the time that becomes obvious, the meter is already running.
of programme slippage is typical when a scheme is called in or referred to committee after organised local objection.12+ mths
per week is a conservative read on holding costs, finance and standing crews while a stalled site waits for a decision.£40k+
major applications in politically engaged London boroughs are delayed, refused or withdrawn where local trust has not been built.1 in 3
The damage rarely arrives as a single event.
It accumulates, quietly, in places that are difficult to recover.
- ·Planning refusal or call-in, with the cost and exposure of appeal.
- ·Section 106 and CIL renegotiated on terms set by hostile public mood.
- ·Investor and JV confidence eroded by visible local opposition.
- ·Public bids weakened where social value and local credibility cannot be evidenced.
- ·Press and social coverage that follows a name long after the scheme completes.
- ·Future consents harder to win, because reputation in this borough has a long memory.
Community trust is built over years.
It cannot be assembled in the weeks before committee.
Practice
Four disciplines.
One practitioner.
Community Engagement Strategy
A measured reading of the people and institutions whose support shapes whether a project lands well. Residents, faith communities, local business, civic groups across the Isle of Dogs, Poplar, Cubitt Town and Millwall.
Planning & Civic Navigation
Tower Hamlets has some of the most considered planning politics in London. I help developers approach it properly, with the right conversations held in the right order, well before an application is lodged.
Long-Term Stakeholder Partnership
A retained relationship for developers and contractors who treat community trust as something to build and maintain throughout a project, not assemble at the eleventh hour.
Public Affairs & Bid Support
Infrastructure bids in East London increasingly turn on genuine local credibility. I help frame that credibility honestly within a bid, and stand by it once it is made.
Ewan Leo Horton, Founder
Founder & Principal Consultant, Oberion Group
About
An operator who understands
infrastructure, capital and community.
I am the Founder and Principal Consultant of Oberion Group, a specialist advisory supporting landlords, operators and asset managers investing in EV charging and wider development infrastructure across the UK. My day work is commercial feasibility, utilisation modelling and site selection for AC and DC projects: filtering out low-potential locations early and prioritising the deployments that earn their return.
Alongside that, I have spent years on the ground in East London. Most intensively, three months running a ward-level political campaign on the Isle of Dogs, door by door, conversation by conversation. I did not win the seat. I came away with something I value more: an honest understanding of the island, its institutions and the people who shape what gets built.
That combination is unusual. I read a site the way a developer reads a site, and I read a community the way someone who has actually stood for election reads a community. For schemes in Tower Hamlets, the two cannot sensibly be separated.
My role here is to bring both to the table: a single, considered voice beside developers, contractors and infrastructure operators from first conversation to final delivery.
Ewan Leo Horton
EV & Development Infrastructure
Feasibility, utilisation modelling and site selection for AC and DC deployments across the UK
Civic & Political Fluency
Ward-level Isle of Dogs campaign and the relationships built before and since
East London Focus
Tower Hamlets, Canary Wharf, the DLR corridor, Poplar, Cubitt Town, Island Gardens
Community Assessment
A clear-eyed read on
where your project stands.
A confidential, two-minute reflection on the community context surrounding your project in Tower Hamlets.
What type of project are you working on?
How I Work
Three steps. Quietly done.
Conversation
We talk. No pitch deck, no proposal template. You tell us about your project, your timeline, and your exposure. We tell you what we see.
Assessment
We map the community landscape specific to your project: the stakeholders, the risks, the relationships that need building, and the ones that are already against you.
Partnership
We work as a retained strategic partner throughout the life of your project. Not a consultant you call when it goes wrong. The person who made sure it didn't.
Contact
An unhurried first conversation,
held in confidence.
Every initial conversation is private and without obligation. I respond to each enquiry personally.