Recent Posts
Nicola Gooch
Greenwich: Developers must make full viability assessments public
Greenwich Council has just announced plans to require residential developers to go public with their full, un-redacted, viability...
02/02/16
Irwin Mitchell
Don't work in Oil
Fickle commodity prices (and the small matter of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) has lead BP to cut thousands of jobs.
02/02/16
Irwin Mitchell
What do you mean, the party's over?
Cassandra had the misfortune as a prophet to be always correct and never believed. Hans Schliemann's digs showed what this meant for real...
02/02/16
Nicola Gooch
Home-Made Nuclear Bunker, built in 1982, becomes Grade II Listed Building
Historic England has awarded listed building status to a homemade nuclear fall-out shelter, erected in the owner's back garden in 1982....
22/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Mayoral election campaigns kick off with pledges to build more homes in London
The race to become Mayor of London has started with a bang - with both the Conservative and Labour candidates promising to dramatically...
20/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Access rights for broadband providers currently buffering
We wouldn't normally expect to monitor consultations from the Department of Culture Media and Sport for our property clients, but they...
19/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Houses to be built on twelve Ministry Of Defence sites
The Ministry of Defence announced yesterday that it will be releasing twelve sites in high value parts of the country for housing, with...
19/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Rigsby in the dock: Private prosecutions against landlords for disrepair and nuisance
A good article on 24dash.com highlights a growing trend for tenants to refer their landlords to the Magistrates Court for breach of...
18/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
£140 million for 100 council estates
The Government has announced a proposal to contribute £140 million of funding to regenerate 100 run-down council estates. The intention...
15/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Skill shortages and house building - bad combination
As ever, gaining a skill will give you a much better chance of getting a job that pays well. If you are not 'academic' train as a...
14/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Is nothing sacred at work?
As an employment lawyer and one that regularly works with technology businesses I am constantly amazed at the things individuals think...
14/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
More commercial investment in PRS
Although the government is still consulting on the SDLT superlevy on second properties for individuals, the market for the commercial...
13/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Unbuckling the green belt
Any decision to build on the green belt is going to be controversial. There is a clear need to increase supply of all types of home...
12/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Is CIL being used to discourage unpopular developments?
Below are some extracts from a Planning Resource article, which suggests that some councils are using CIL as a mechanism for discouraging...
12/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Exclusivity clauses are now (properly!) banned
There were big headlines in May last year when exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts became unenforceable. These clauses prevent...
11/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
What do you think is vital today?
Surveyors Lambert Smith Hampton have published their "Vitality Index" - not a ranking of the value of smoothies based on kale and...
08/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Sports Direct: at it again
Sports Direct has announced that they will be paying more than the minimum wage from now on. So that's good. They have also appointed...
06/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Housing and Planning Bill: Amendment to break LPAs monopoly over processing planning applications
Greg Clark has proposed an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill which, if granted, may allow developers to choose who processes...
06/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
COP 21 - Leading companies commit to zero energy buildings
Existing EU requirements require all new buildings to be "nearly zero energy buildings" (nZEBS) by 2020. In an exciting move at the...
06/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Legal highs in the workplace. Are you covered?
So-called legal highs are often in the news these days, but as indicated by these recent statistics employers would be wise to consider...
06/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Easing complications from that post-Christmas breakup
The papers have been full of the usual articles about post Christmas marital breakdown. Ipswich Building Society is making a point of...
05/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Proceeds of Crime Act used to seize profits from unlawful development
Hackney Council has seized £700,000 from a developer who built a block of flats without planning permission, and then proceeded to rent...
05/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
Racism kicked out of M & S
Marks and Spencer have dismissed their high profile recent recruit for allegedly using racist language. A well known brand is...
05/01/16
Nicola Gooch
Government Launches House-building Programme
The Government has decided to start building houses. In a pilot project, to be launched today, the Government will commission up to...
04/01/16
Irwin Mitchell
A disingenuous headline - "It's cheaper to buy a home than to rent"
Santander research headlines that the current cost of buying is cheaper than renting in all areas of the country, except eastern England,...
18/12/15
Nicola Gooch
NPPF: Select Committee launches inquiry into Christmas consultation
December has always been a popular time for public consultations, so it did not come as a particular surprise to many of us that the...
17/12/15
Irwin Mitchell
What rights do our volunteers have?
I don't want to sound like Scrooge in the run up to Christmas but this is a question any organization engaging volunteers should...
15/12/15
Nicola Gooch
Airport Expansion: When meeting long term needs becomes political dynamite
The continued procrastination over whether to expand Heathrow Airport seems to play into a much wider theme in the British (and...
14/12/15
Irwin Mitchell
America is becoming less middle class
The top 1% are getting richer, the highly educated and well paid are getting richer and everyone else is going backwards. White collar...
09/12/15
Nicola Gooch
Court of Appeal rules on legal definition of a "Tree"
The Court of Appeal has issued a decision which confirms that the word "tree" for the purposes of a Tree Preservation Order or Tree...
09/12/15