Chambers UK in focus: Planning and Environment

In the recently published Chambers 2025 UK guide, our service lines once again performed strongly. We caught up with our Head of Planning & Environment, Katherine Evans, to look back on another successful year.

What makes this a standout year for the practice?

Our Planning and Environment team helps clients get planning permission for all sorts of developments including commercial, housing, renewable energy and infrastructure. We support other parts of the firm, including Corporate and Banking, where due diligence on planning and environmental issues is required. 

We support pretty much every client of the firm at some time or another, however our main client base lies in housing, retail, renewables and the public sector. Clients include WH Smith, Greene King, Nationwide, Oxfordshire County Council and many others.

On a personal note, I am particularly proud to maintain my Band 1 ranking for Planning (South West) in Chambers UK 2025, having been ranked among the leading practitioners in the region for around two decades. Our Bristol team goes from strength to strength, and to ensure we are ready to support our clients with what comes next, we made a significant hire at the start of the year, with the arrival of managing associate John Arthur. John has extensive experience advising on nationally significant infrastructure projects and the Development Consent Order application and examination processes.

In our wider cross-national team, we have recorded some notable successes in Chambers UK. Our Manchester team achieved a ranking for the first time this year, with Debbie Reynolds noted as an Up and Coming Partner following her promotion to partner in 2024. 

In Belfast, we were delighted to be promoted to a Band 1 Planning & Environment team in Northern Ireland, with Andrew Ryan also promoted to become a Band 1 partner, and Sarah Mulholland recognised for the first time as an Associate to Watch.

What types of projects have you supported over the past 12 months?

Recent standout work for the team includes:

• Advising independent waste company, Sortera, on the planning aspects of its acquisition of Reston Waste, a deal that makes Sortera the largest independent construction waste company across Greater London.
  
  
• Advising renewable energy infrastructure firm Field on the planning aspects of its acquisition of 200MWh Scottish Holmston and Drum Farm battery energy storage sites from RES.
  
  
• Advising Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council on a large volume of compulsory purchase compensation claims submitted regarding the A6 Manchester Airport Relief Road.

• Advising Oxfordshire County Council on planning aspects of a £330m scheme to provide 11km of new road infrastructure to Didcot Garden Village and 20km of cycle and pedestrian facilities, funded under the Housing Infrastructure Forward Fund.

• Advising a purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) provider on several projects in England and Wales including advice on discharging a planning condition requiring nitrate mitigation through the purchase of credits.

• Advising national energy company on two DCO applications for solar and battery storage projects.

Looking ahead, what do you hope to achieve as a team over the next 12 months?

The next 12 months is going to be a busy one for us, with the change of Government bringing changes to planning policy. The focus of press attention has been on the proposals to increase housing supply, but changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will also have a positive impact on renewable energy generation, for example. The drive towards net-zero will require a continued acceleration in the roll-out of future energy infrastructure, which won’t be possible without a thorough understanding of planning law.

The plan in the coming year will be to expand the team further, building on our success and certainly not resting on our laurels!