Marion Roberts is Professor of Urban Design at the University of Westminster. Her most recent research project was on the topic of the influence of place on youth drinking behaviours, carried out with Tim Townshend from Newcastle University and was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

She has extensive specialist expertise on the night-time economy and has led a number of research projects on the topic and published widely. The studies were commissioned and funded by a mixture of charities and agencies: the Leverhulme Foundation, the Civic Trust and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Institute of Alcohol Studies. Selected findings have been used to underpin the criteria used in the Purple Flag scheme of accreditation. Her book about the night-time economy, Planning the Night-time City, co-authored by Dr Adam Eldridge, was published by Routledge in July 2009.

Marion is a board member of Purple Flag and is currently chairing a task group on Improving the Evening and Night-time Experience for the West End Partnership in central London.