Recent Posts
Nicola Gooch
Supportive of Tunbridge Wells: A local view of the ABC Cinema Site and its lack of Affordable Housing.
Those of you who have a Planning Resource subscription may have noticed an article, published yesterday, which commented on a mixed use...
26/10/17
Irwin Mitchell
Poor mobile signal? - not for long (hopefully). Important news for landowners
Most of you would have no doubt seen the ample coverage of the new electronic communications code which is being brought in to drag...
23/10/17
Nicola Gooch
Housing & Finance Institute Report: Land Banking is a Myth, Conventional Wisdom about the Housing Crisis is Wrong, and maybe Councillors shouldn't vote on planning applications in their own wards....
Earlier this week the Housing & Finance Institute published its report into the causes of the Housing Crisis in London. The report...
19/10/17
Nicola Gooch
Politics and Planning: Tis the Season for Mixed Messages
A bit like preparations for Christmas, the season of pre-budget reporting seems to begin earlier each year. We are just over four weeks...
18/10/17
Joanne Moseley
New leave allowance on the cards for bereaved parents
My dad died a couple of weeks ago. Grief assaulted me like a wrecking ball. I was lucky - my employers offered support and...
16/10/17
Nicola Gooch
Politics and Planning: Research shows a link between Secretary of State decisions and the 'colour' of the Council
Earlier today, Planning Resource published a report on a research project that Irwin Mitchell has been carrying out over the last few...
13/10/17
Joanne Moseley
One in three work sickness notes related to mental health
Millions of us are affected by mental illness each year, with new official data revealing that one in three work sickness notes handed...
13/10/17
Irwin Mitchell
Calling all Landlords - Guidance on Minimum Energy Efficiency
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has published guidance for domestic and non-domestic landlords to assist in...
12/10/17
Nicola Gooch
London Councils express concern over proposed hike in Mayoral CIL rates.
Over the summer, the Mayor of London ran a consultation which proposed significantly increasing the rates of Mayoral CIL charged across...
09/10/17
Irwin Mitchell
welcome news on social housing rents
DCLG has announced that from 2020 to 2025 housing associations are entitled to increase their rents by 1% over CPI inflation. Sounds...
06/10/17
Nicola Gooch
DCLG Considers using CIL Receipts to fund new Neighbourhood Plans.
Last week, Planning Resource published a story which got fairly close to ruining my day*. DCLG are inviting tenders for a contract to...
02/10/17
Joanne Moseley
EU considering ways to protect 'gig' and zero hours workers
According to the Independent newspaper the European Commission wants more social protection and rights for casual workers, such as those...
28/09/17
Nicola Gooch
Localism v The Pro-Growth Agenda: MP requests DCLG intervention in Maidstone Local Plan
Anyone who thought that encouraging the adoption of up-to-date Local Plans would prove a panacea for England's planning and housing woes...
25/09/17
Irwin Mitchell
Flexible Working
We often find that there is a clash of approach between employers and the law when it comes to flexible working requests. Many employers...
22/09/17
Irwin Mitchell
Can Prefab homes solve the UK's housing crisis
We want to share banking and development specialist Laura Mitchell's article for the Manchester Property Group on how modular and offsite...
21/09/17
Irwin Mitchell
Cancelling holidays
At the risk of wading in to what looks like a really messy workplace dispute...readers might be interested to know that Ryan Air may well...
21/09/17
Irwin Mitchell
Land Registry Issues Change of Gender Form - by Lorraine Rose
The Land Registry has this week launched a new form enabling a registered owner to update their name on the registered title following a...
20/09/17
Lorraine Rose-Dugdale
Land Registry Issues Change of Gender Form
The Land Registry has this week launched a new form enabling a registered owner to update their name on the registered title following a...
20/09/17
Joanne Moseley
Two-thirds of employers not using levy funds to train staff
The Apprenticeship Levy was introduced on 6 April 2017 and requires employers with a payroll of over £3 million to pay 0.5% of their...
20/09/17
Nicola Gooch
Things you might have missed in the DCLG Consultation: It's not all about Housing Need
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the best way to prompt the release of a consultation document, that you are actually...
19/09/17
Irwin Mitchell
Waning confidence bites. Can Brexit be blamed?
The Times has published an interesting, although worrying article on the performance of shop openings in the second quarter of the year....
14/09/17
Nicola Gooch
The Enforcer: The Mayor of London gets tough on Affordable Housing Provision
If Boris Johnson will always be remembered as the Mayor who introduced the 'Boris Bike' to the capital; then the current Mayor of London,...
08/09/17
Joanne Moseley
TUC says flexible working request can end in worse outcomes
According to a survey carried out by the TUC, two out of five low-paid young parents who ask for flexible work arrangements are...
04/09/17
Nicola Gooch
Micro Homes & Straw Houses: Alternative Methods of Construction Hit the News
Solving the housing crisis is undoubtedly a difficult thing to do, which might be one of the reasons why there has been so little...
01/09/17
Nicola Gooch
Planning and Competing Priorities: a choice between allotments and social housing highlights why we need the planning system - and the problems inherent in how we talk about it.
Earlier this month (on 2 August) the Guardian published an article exploring the issues raised by a controversial planning proposal. The...
17/08/17
Irwin Mitchell
More on the refund of ET Fees
Those seeking a refund of fees will have to wait a little while longer - this just in from the Employment Tribunals (England and...
17/08/17
Lorraine Rose-Dugdale
VAT zero-rating denied for conversion of partly non-residential property into dwellings
The Upper Tribunal has denied VAT zero-rating for dwellings converted from partly non-residential and partly residential areas in a...
16/08/17
Irwin Mitchell
Buildover agreements, TfL and who do you go to when you want to build over?
You might wonder why a Court of Appeal case about interpretation of a statutory instrument about highways should be setting warning...
12/08/17
Irwin Mitchell
Employment Tribunal Fees
The Employment Tribunals Presidents in England and Scotland have issued a Case Management Order, effectively staying (pausing) any case...
11/08/17
Lorraine Rose-Dugdale
Consultation on Tackling Unfair Practices in the Leasehold Housing Market
The government is considering introducing measures to tackle unfair practices in the housing market. The possible measures being...
10/08/17