Muir Smith Evans, the niche Scottish planning consultancy practice set up by Brian Muir, Adrian Smith and Robert Evans, has agreed a merger with commercial property consultants Ryden.

The merged firms will operate under the Ryden name with the Muir Smith Evans team joining Ryden’s established planning departments in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The deal creates a market-leading planning and research consultancy team operating throughout Scotland with the potential to expand further across the UK.

Muir Smith Evans is best known for providing planning consultancy on large-scale, complex projects including a range of greenfield and brownfield commercial developments. The firm has delivered residential, student, commercial, retail, leisure, hotel and heritage projects across Scotland and the north of England.

This latest deal is the next step in Ryden’s strategy for growth. In the last 12 months Ryden has merged with Mason Philips to open an office in London and more recently opened an office in Manchester taking its total number of offices in England to three.

Bill Duguid, Ryden Managing Partner, said “This merger with the highly-respected planning consultancy Muir Smith Evans has brought a new depth to the expertise offered by our Planning and Research department. It is a significant boost to Ryden to welcome three new Partners with such an excellent track record in planning and development advice. We continue to seek opportunities for growth through mergers with practices whose client-focused culture matches our own.”

Bob Evans, Muir Smith Evans Partner, added “We are delighted to be merging with Ryden. It is a particularly good fit and provides us with continuity and a complementary skill base as well as the opportunity to serve existing and new clients from offices across the UK.”