Our specialist planning unit provides our clients with the focus, strategy, organisation and attention to detail needed to operate effectively in the planning system, and our combination of chartered town planners and lawyers enables us to provide a one-stop shop throughout the planning process.
Large projects, such as regeneration and urban extensions, are key elements of the work we undertake (both for public and private sector bodies). At Browne Jacobson, we’re dedicated to making the complex simple and finding creative solutions. We help our clients tackle the legal hurdles associated with large projects in order to promote bold and place-creating schemes.
We also advise on appropriation, rights of way, habitats law, EIA, SEA, planning enforcement, waste, certificates of lawful use, affordable housing, use classes and judicial review.
Advising on the planning aspects of proposed new garden town in East Kent, to be developed on a 770-hectare site on the M20, with long-term potential to deliver up to 10,000 new homes plus employment space that could support up to 8,000 jobs.
Working with a public body on the development consent order for the £8bn+ Lower Thames Crossing project.
Providing broad support for Croydon Council’s planning team, including advice on highways, local plan, judicial review and planning enforcement. We regularly act as the legal officer to planning committee, and provide training to committee members. We also operate an advice line where members of the planning team can access legal support for relatively minor queries easily and quickly.
Working with a public body in connection with a 5,000 homme urban extension in the West Midlands. This includes negotiation in relation to a framework section 106 agreement (as there will be multiple applications being brought forward), as well as planning the planning framework.
The team understands our requests and understands the organisation and its nuances. The senior partner is practical with advice and is always available even at short notice. The team listens to ways to improve the services they offer.
"The Browne Jacobson planning practice have been consistently professional, efficient and responsive; and delivered on time and within budget. They worked on a complex S.106 agreement, which required them to work collaboratively with a number of different parties to get the agreement completed, and they did so effectively and successfully."
"They have the ability to have open and honest discussions and they are supportive to an in-house organisation and understand the needs of the business and not just the law."
"The Browne Jacobson Planning Team have delivered an excellent overall service to us, providing legal advice to develop our growth vision."
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.
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”).
It is clear that the digital landscape, often termed cyberspace, is a man-made environment, in which human behaviour dominates and where technology both influences and aids our role in it — through the internet, telecoms and networked computer systems, which are often interdependent. The extent to which any organisation is potentially vulnerable to cyber-attack depends on how well these elements are aligned.
Three months on from the commencement of the new statutory Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Anja Beriro and Gerrard Hanratty reflect on the main themes and issues that have come from the new relationship between local government and health.
The Procurement Bill (the Bill) has now been with us for about four months, during which time there have been a huge number of amendments proposed in the House of Lords (circa 320). Lately, there has been less mention of it — unsurprising, really, given everything else going on in politics recently — but here’s a summary of some of the key issues and themes so far.
Browne Jacobson has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Public Sector Legal Services Framework on Lot 1a – full-service provision (England and Wales) and Lot 2a – general service provision (England and Wales).
Welcome to our September edition of Public Matters, our monthly round-up of legal updates, news and insights for the public sector.
Since the UK left the EU and are now able to move away from the EU data protection regime, the UK government have implemented a national data strategy with the aim of reducing the burden on organisations but maintaining a high data protection standard.
The Chancellor’s recent mini-budget provided a significant announcement for business as it was confirmed that the off-payroll working rules (known as “IR35”) put in place for public and private sector businesses from 2017 and 2021 will be scrapped from April 2023.
