Planning law is the gateway to property development.
It’s the vital first step for building projects large and small. But the planning and consenting systems are not easy to navigate. Decades of tinkering in law, policy and regulation have created a machine which may seem confusing or even contradictory to outside observers.
To make it work for you, you need to make sense of the mechanics and components – strategic policies, environmental considerations and regulations, national guidance, Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in the infrastructure and energy sectors. And then there’s affordable housing, mixed use and commercial developments, listed buildings, Section 106 agreements, appeals, novel consenting regimes such as local development orders, the compulsory purchase process and judicial reviews to name just a few.
You also need to understand planning and environmental issues when managing and disposing of the asset, and how they might affect joint ventures, development finance and refinancing. And that’s before you even consider how intensely political the planning regime has become.
