Planning & environmental law
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Our Planning & Environmental Law Practice
advises private and public sector clients, including property
developers, urban regenerators, Government departments and
agencies, local planning authorities and national and multinational
companies on the planning and environmental aspects of a broad
range of projects. Our lawyers advise in transactional,
regulatory and litigious contexts.
Planning
The town and country planning regime, and the associated areas
of compulsory purchase and highways law, are of fundamental
importance to property transactions and a key component of asset
value and management.
The planning system is ever more complex with a plethora of
primary and secondary legislation, national, regional and local
policy and case law arising from the courts and from decisions of
Inspectors and the Secretary of State. All this requires
careful analysis and consideration in order to devise the
appropriate strategies to protect and enhance land value.
Environmental law
As the full impact of human activity on the environment becomes
more widely acknowledged, governments respond with ever more
extensive (and expensive) regulation. In the past few years, we
have seen the introduction of the regime for the remediation of
contaminated land, an overhaul of the integrated pollution
prevention and control legislation regulating production
industries, the introduction of the climate change levy and changes
to the regulation of waste disposal.
Potential environmental liability has become one of the central
risk management issues in property and company acquisitions and
disposals. The requirements of the regulatory regime mean that
organisations and individuals need to ensure appropriate compliance
or face potential civil and criminal liability as well as
reputational damage.