Leading with purpose in a changing market

As the year draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on what has been a period of remarkable growth and deep learning for us at Stories.

This year, we’ve doubled our headcount - welcoming a group of talented, thoughtful, and values-driven people who have strengthened not just our capacity, but our culture. Welcome - Mark Swinburne, Andrea Salter, David Reay, Zoe Turvey, Lily Weston, Eliza Griffiths and Eden Keily-Thurstain! You can read more about them all here.

We’ve moved into a new office that gives us the space to work, collaborate, and plan together.

And we’ve made significant progress across our projects, working alongside partners who share our belief that development can and should be a force for good.

We secured our first planning permission in partnership with Aviva Capital Partners at Bunns Lane and are out to tender for construction, we have submitted a planning application for a generational estate transformation at Mansfield College, Oxford, started working with the Duchy of Cornwall in Kennington and are quietly beavering away on some other wonderful projects that we will share more on in the new year!

None of this has happened in a vacuum. The backdrop to this growth is a market that continues to be challenging. Inflationary pressures, tightening capital markets, planning uncertainty, and political churn have created headwinds for our industry. Where some see turbulence, we’ve chosen to see an opportunity to do things differently - to work with long-term partners, create new forms of value, and invest in the kinds of places that endure through good and bad.

For us, growth isn’t just about scale; it’s about depth. We’ve invested in building a team that can think critically, work collaboratively across disciplines and has deep experience. That matters, because the problems we’re trying to solve - how to create more sustainable, inclusive, and enduring places - are complex. They can’t be solved by spreadsheets alone.

Leading through this kind of growth has reinforced a lesson we keep returning to: purpose is a compass, not a slogan. It’s what anchors us in a volatile market. It helps us say no to the wrong opportunities and yes to the right ones - even if the right ones take longer or require more patience.

I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved this year, and just as importantly, how we’ve gone about it: with care, ambition, and a commitment to collaboration.

As we look to next year, we’ll be focused on deepening our partnerships, advancing our projects, and continuing to build a business that is guided by its purpose and measured by its impact.

Thank you to our partners, collaborators, and friends who’ve walked alongside us this year. We’re excited about what comes next.