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Interview with Fraser Willcox, Economic Development Officer at Dacorum
How Dacorum Borough Council used huq evidence to evaluate Welcome Back Fund activity, town-centre recovery and local events.
The Challenge
Dacorum Borough Council needed to understand how five town centres were recovering from Covid-19 and whether Welcome Back Fund activity, regular markets and major events were changing visitor behaviour. The team required consistent evidence for funding evaluation and future place investment.
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Measure recovery
Compare current footfall, dwell and visitor behaviour with pandemic and pre-pandemic periods.
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Evaluate interventions
Show whether funded events and town-centre activity produced measurable changes in visits.
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Guide future funding
Combine local views with objective evidence to prioritise investment, jobs and new government funding bids.
The Solution
huq provided a live behavioural intelligence layer that unified movement trends, catchment visibility, and district benchmarking into a single platform.
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Movement Intelligence
Live visibility into visitor activity and engagement patterns.
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Catchment Analysis
Postcode-level insight into visitor origins and regional movement.
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Recovery Tracking
Monitor behavioural recovery and engagement trends over time.
Intervention Evaluation
Measure how funded initiatives and place-based interventions affect behaviour and local outcomes.
Dacorum Borough Council used huq evidence to evaluate Welcome Back Fund activity, town-centre recovery and local events.
Dacorum procured huq through the Welcome Back Fund and European Regional Development Fund. The council monitored footfall, dwell, density, catchment, place satisfaction and visitor frequency across five towns, supported by quarterly Customer Success reports.
Case study highlights
- Recovery comparison: Current performance could be assessed against 2020, 2021 and pre-pandemic baselines.
- Visitor-behaviour insight: Dwell, catchment and repeat-visit measures explained more than raw footfall alone.
- Event evaluation: Jubilee activity was compared with equivalent days to quantify its effect.
- Evidence-led planning: Findings supported decisions about future town-centre activity and investment.
The data showed both incomplete footfall recovery and stronger dwell behaviour, while demonstrating substantial event-day uplifts in Hemel Hempstead.
Results & Operational Impact
With huq first clients achieve significantly stronger visibility into commercial demand, engagement growth, and estate performance.
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Faster leasing evaluations
Improved understanding of real-world commercial demand
Stronger investment confidence
Behavioural intelligence supported more evidence-led decisions
Improved district visibility
Teams benchmarked engagement across multiple locations
Better recovery tracking
Live movement signals replaced delayed reporting cycles
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Empowering strategic teams with the world's most accurate and accessible location intelligence.
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