One year ago, the Department for Transport targeted 2021 for having connected and automated vehicles on UK roads.
One year ago, the Department for Transport targeted 2021 for having connected and automated vehicles on UK roads.
The car industry has undoubtedly been accelerating R&D projects in this area. ‘Driven’ trialled a driverless car in Stratford London last year. In the US, General Motors’ Cruise launched 2020 by unveiling its vision for driverless shared ownership cabins, and Google’s Waymo announced last week that it would team up with UPS to test self-driving vans in Arizona.
Driverless vehicles have been promised by many as a panacea to numerous ills. Automation could mean efficient traffic management, greater accessibility, tailored public transport, faster travel times and a reduction in the large costs of congestion to business.
There remains scepticism regarding timescales, given safety concerns and that only 54% of UK A and B roads have 4G coverage (or better), there remains a large infrastructure gap to fill. There is also a concerning blind-spot when it comes to bad weather in trials. But even with delays, we might soon start seeing changes to where consumers choose to live and shop. This could well happen within the term of a commercial lease, or impact the long-term viability of developments, and all manner of consequences to our lives and real estate have been theorised.
Greater ease of transport may shift demand for residential space away from densely populated areas. Cheaper car sharing may remove the demand for city-centre car parking and free up space for leisure, retail or other uses. Driverless vans could amplify the profitability of online shopping and click-and-collect. Retail stores may even go mobile and cars might eventually lose ground to automated pods that shuttle goods and people alike.
Likely or not, the scope for innovation is exciting. It would also fundamentally disrupt the real estate sector, as longstanding perceptions of the value of locations adapt. So, flexibility in your real estate portfolio remains critical.
As for what land will have the greatest value in the future? That’s the billion-pound question, you tell us!
In this session, we examined the legal framework around grant funded collaborations and discussed the key risks to be aware of, including IP ownership and compliance with grant terms.
Law firm Browne Jacobson has collaborated with Wiltshire Council and Christ Church Business School on the launch event of The Council Company Best Practice and Innovation Network, a platform which brings together academic experts and senior local authority leaders, allowing them to share best practice in relation to council companies.
In the Autumn Statement delivered on 17 November, rises to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates were announced, to take effect from 1 April 2023.
Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
On 2 November 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the much awaiting case of Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30. The Court’s judgment suggests that the long established practice of using drop-in applications is in fact much more restricted than previously thought. This judgment therefore has significant implications for both the developers and local planning authorities.
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Logistics company Eddie Stobart has been fined £133,000, after a series of failures which took place whilst excavation work was carried out, exposing its staff to asbestos.
Across the UK, homelessness is an urgent crisis, and one that is set to grow amid the rising cost of living. Local authorities are at the forefront of responding to this crisis, but with a lack of properties that are suitable for social housing across the UK, vulnerable individuals and families are often housed in temporary accommodation.
Updates include UK Shared Prosperity Fund, contracts, Subsidy Control Bill, data controller liability, Government Covid-19 procurement and Highway Code revisions.
The complex and rather nebulous transitional subsidy control regime set out in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the UK’s wider international commitments has made it difficult for public authorities and those working with them to proceed with certainty where subsidies are involved.
Investment zones have been introduced by the Conservative party to get the United Kingdom (UK) ‘working, building and growing’. They are to be designated sites which provide time-limited tax incentives, streamlined planning rules and wider support for local growth to encourage investment and accelerate the development of housing and infrastructure that the UK needs to drive economic growth. Processes and requirements that slow down development will be stripped back with the intention of attracting new investment.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
