Ardent to create new jobs with Northern Ireland expansion

A land, consent management and stakeholder engagement practice is set for expansion across Northern Ireland.

Ardent, which has an office in Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, is set to grow its presence across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to 20 people over the coming months, to support a range of major transport and renewable energy projects across the island.

The company, which has expertise in the consenting and delivery of projects across the transport, renewables, utilities and regeneration sectors, has other offices across the UK In London, Birmingham, Leeds, Warrington and Glasgow, and is stepping up its investment on the island of Ireland, having established a team of six people over the past six months.

Ardent’s team in Ireland is led by Graeme Black, who joined as an associate director in January. Graeme has also been joined by Gary Dinsmore and India Roberts from Dalcour Maclaren, whilst other members of the team have relocated from Great Britain.

Jon Stott, Ardent’s Group managing director, cited recent government commitments relating to offshore wind projects, together with investments in transport infrastructure such as the A5 road upgrade, Metrolink, Luas extensions and BusConnects, and the significant upgrades required to electricity infrastructure across the island, as key reasons for Ardent choosing to invest.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted that we can take the next steps in Ireland – both north and south of the border – to really invest and grow the work we do here.

“Our purpose is to deliver life-improving change and it is obvious that with the range and scale of projects coming forward, there will be a real squeeze on the existing pool of expertise required to achieve consents and deliver projects that will make a positive difference in terms of meeting net zero targets, improving connectivity and delivering energy security.

“We expect to grow our team to 20 plus over the next few months, to help to plug the emerging skills gap.

“Developing a team that combines local knowledge and relationships, with experience of delivering on major projects such as High Speed 2, East West Rail, UK offshore wind farms and mass transit projects, means we are well placed to help clients to achieve their goals, adopting best practice and learning lessons from elsewhere, and applying them in a local context.

“Ardent has an office in Dublin already and we anticipate opening in Belfast and Cork in the future, but we will also continue to employ great people who are based close to the projects we are working on because that is key.

“We understand that there are differences and nuances to the consenting regimes in Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland as compared to GB, and that’s why we have taken the strategic decision to bring in professionals from within Ireland to oversee our growth.

“This is a very exciting time for Ardent, and we are looking forward to growing in Ireland as part of a wider company expansion that will see us hit some very ambitious targets over the next two to three years.”