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I've came across some sentences that I think have been reduced from "have been + [past participle]" to "being + [past participle]" but I don't know whether this right or not and I couldn't find any grammar topic about this.

This is one of those sentences:

There seems to have been a spate of this substance being used recently.

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    Could you say how you would expect your sentence to appear if "unreduced"?
    – Andrew Leach
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 8:26
  • @AndrewLeach guess must've used another sentence something like: The new Town Hall, which has been designed by TMC Architects Ltd, is expected to receive several awards==The new Town Hall, being designed by TMC Architects Ltd, is expected to receive several
    – Kojiama
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 8:38
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    With the example you give in the question, are you comparing with 'There seems to have been a spate of this substance having been used recently'? I don't think many practised Anglophones would use 'having been used' here; time sequencing doesn't demand the clarification of the more complex structure. But then 'The use of this substance seems to have increased greatly in recent months' is more idiomatic.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 11:56
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    a spate of this substance being used is natural "generic" phrasing, where ...of this substance having been used implicitly calls attention to a number of recent incidents / detections of this substance [mis]use. Someone who works in judicial / social services might choose to use Present Perfect Continuous because they tend to think in terms of countable instances. Indeed, the very word spate in the example is consistent with that perspective, which won't shared by others who think of substance abuse as they do air pollution (it's everywhere, not isolated incidents).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 19, 2022 at 12:20

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The new Town Hall, designed by TMC Architects Ltd, is expected to receive several awards.

Is the reduced equivalent of

The new Town Hall, which has been designed by TMC Architects Ltd, is expected to receive several awards.

And in both cases “The new Town Hall” is qualified by a non-defining clause. Non-defining clauses can be omitted and are de-emphasised.

However, in

The new Town Hall, being designed by TMC Architects Ltd, is expected to receive several awards.

“being designed by TMC Architects Ltd” = because it has been designed by TMC Architects Ltd and is probably best classed as a subordinate clause of reason.

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