Recent Posts
Nicola Gooch
Election 2017 - Manifesto Week: Liberal Democrats on Planning
The Liberal Democrat Manifesto opens with an admission that they will not win the general election. The stated aim is to become the...
17/05/17
Nicola Gooch
Election 2017 - Manifesto Week: Labour on Planning
The three main political parties are releasing their manifestos this week and, as a result, I am afraid you are going to be hearing quite...
17/05/17
Irwin Mitchell
"Single Family Housing" gathers pace in the US
There is an interesting piece on Bisnow about the rise in the US of portfolios of institutionally rented houses ("Single family housing")...
10/05/17
Nicola Gooch
Supreme Court clarification of NPPF reinforces the role of plain English in interpreting policy
Earlier today the Supreme Court handed down its long awaiting judgment in the cases of Suffolk Coastal District Council v Hopkins Homes...
10/05/17
Irwin Mitchell
Rising demand for development land in the Regions
It is interesting to see that the latest Savills report on development land matches the data found in our joint "UK Powerhouse Report"...
04/05/17
Nicola Gooch
Boundary Disputes: The 'Duty to Co-operate' fails when faced with clashes over strategic priorities
The 'duty to co-operate' appears to have been a problem for local planning authorities ever since it was introduced. The original...
03/05/17
Irwin Mitchell
A tale of 20 Cities
Hometrack figures released today show that although markets seem to be softening in London, Oxford, and Cambridge, other regional cities...
28/04/17
Nicola Gooch
Secretary of State refuses 6 recovered appeals on a single day in run up to snap election.
Last Friday (21st April) appears to have been a 'deck-clearing' day for the National Planning Casework Unit. In what was, no doubt, a...
24/04/17
Nicola Gooch
Metro Mayors: planning fireworks or another damp squib?
The nation is about to go to the polls. This time, however, the electorate in six regions of the UK will be tasked with electing their...
12/04/17
Irwin Mitchell
When is a right, a right?
A very recent case in the Court of Appeal Regency Villas Title Ltd and others v Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd and another [2017] EWCA Civ...
10/04/17
Nicola Gooch
Demolishing Your Dreams: When Planning Goes (Extremely) Wrong
I am very pleased to say that planning enforcement cases do not cross my desk all that often, but when they do the stakes for the parties...
07/04/17
Nicola Gooch
Playing Catch-Up: The Great Repeal Bill, Permission in Principle, The Neighbourhood Planning Bill...
There have been so many important developments over the last few weeks that I have been struggling to decide which to write about. ...
31/03/17
Nicola Gooch
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council considers a new garden village for the Garden of England
It isn't very often that I write about events taking place in my own back yard, but on this occasion, I am going to make an exception. ...
23/03/17
Nicola Gooch
Minister goes to MIPIM... and makes an announcement that his Diary Secretary may regret
This week, the great and the good of the property industry are networking in the South of France. I am not amongst them*, but Gavin...
17/03/17
Nicola Gooch
Housing Forum report: Take politics out of planning to boost housing supply
Many people take issue with the way in which individual planning applications are decided. The system is far from perfect, and can...
16/03/17
Nicola Gooch
We are not yet prepared for supporting an ageing population: Carl Dyer talks to Planning Resource
Those of you who have been reading these posts for a while, may have picked up on the fact that our team has an interest in the...
10/03/17
Nicola Gooch
Wrangling over Reasons: R oao CPRE Kent v Dover District Council heads to the Supreme Court
When the Government removed the statutory duty to include reasons for granting consent on the face of a planning permission in 2013,...
08/03/17
Nicola Gooch
Homes of the Future - Technology and Retirement Living
Earlier this week McCarthy & Stone and the Agile Ageing Alliance released a report which considers the implications of technology for the...
02/03/17
Irwin Mitchell
Do you have, or can you see, Japanese Knotweed at your Property?
An article on the BBC news website has highlighted that a homeowner has been successful in claiming compensation from Network Rail, when...
01/03/17
Irwin Mitchell
"When constabulary duty's to be done, to be done, a Landlord's lot is not an 'appy one, 'appy one"
If you ever read the books about "The Scarecrow" by Russell Thorndyke, tales of smugglers on Romney Marsh, led by the local Parson, and...
28/02/17
Nicola Gooch
Aarhus Cost Protection Limits for Judicial Reviews no Longer Set in Stone
Today, the 88th Amendment to the Civil Procedure Rules comes into effect. You might think that this is a slightly odd topic for a...
28/02/17
Nicola Gooch
Inspector tells Mid Sussex Council to plan for more homes
Mid Sussex Council submitted its new District Plan to the Planning Inspectorate for examination in August 2016. Earlier this week, the...
22/02/17
Nicola Gooch
Streamlining Newts - or at least their licensing arrangements
Hidden away in the detail of the Housing White Paper was an announcement about Great Crested Newts. Namely, that following a successful...
17/02/17
Nicola Gooch
The Housing White Paper: Very Heavily Abridged
The Housing White Paper was finally unveiled, in the House of Commons, on Tuesday lunchtime and has dominated the news for most of the...
09/02/17
Nicola Gooch
Suffering Housing White Paper Overload? Let's talk CIL Reform instead
On a day where parliament is discussing BREXIT and appropriate measures for protecting the public from seagulls (and most planning...
07/02/17
Irwin Mitchell
Over-elm..ing protection for Woodlands (pardon the pun)
The Telegraph has published a very interesting article on the much anticipated Housing White Paper (due tomorrow) and Government plans to...
06/02/17
Nicola Gooch
Is the Government about to get on board with the Retirement Housing agenda?
Gavin Barwell spent much of the weekend on television discussing the Housing White Paper, which is now expected on Tuesday this week....
06/02/17
Irwin Mitchell
SDLT surcharge on second homes nets additional £1.19bn
The Times has reported (behind a paywall) that the additional 3% SDLT surcharge on residential properties brought by someone who already...
02/02/17
Nicola Gooch
RTPI Publishes Practice Note on Planning For Dementia Friendly Developments
Yesterday, the RTPI published its first practice note on "Dementia and Town Planning". The practice note is only 16 pages long and I...
31/01/17
Irwin Mitchell
Property Fraud - Protect yourself
Lessons can be gleaned from a recent high profile case on property fraud. Landlords (both residential and commercial) should heed the...
27/01/17