Dr Callum Ward
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Callum Ward is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Awarded his PhD from KU Leuven in 2019 for a thesis on the financialisation of built environment in Northwest England and Flanders, he has published on land rent theory, the governance of land ‘assetisation’, and the financial engineering of port infrastructure. He joined UCL from York University, Canada, where he had been investigating monopoly in the tech sector. Callum’s research centres on questions of governance in an increasingly rentier-dominated economy and the associated politics of (who is exposed to) risk.

Recent London posts
Market maturity and investment in London’s Student Accommodation sector
No longer ‘alternative’? One of the most startling findings from the London team’s exploration of investment into residential real estate was the significant volume of capital flowing into the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector. Research on investment...
Planning for residential ‘value’ in London?
Image by David SamuelIn a seminar for the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge, London WHIG team member Nicola Livingstone reflected on findings from a recently published paper that explores planning for ‘value’ through densification. The paper...
The Geographies of Viability Planning
In a recent new publication Whig researchers Jess Ferm and Mike Raco explore the geographies of viability-driven planning reform in England.Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in London and the North East region, the paper reflects on the variable outcomes and...