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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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Background EA 2021, s 98 and Sch 14 extend BNG to applications under the TCPA 1990. After consultation from January to April 2022, the regime and accompanying regulations were commenced in two stages on 12 February and 2 April 2024, having first been intended for November 2023. For NSIPs consented by DCOs, the corresponding provisions are in EA 2021, s 99 and Sch 15 and were originally slated for November 2025. A consultation launched on 28 May, alongside an announcement that commencement would be deferred by six months to May 2026. This note outlines what is proposed in that consultation and highlights any differences from the equivalent TCPA 1990 implementation, which this proposal does not affect. The ecological measures in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill are also separate from, and additional to, this...
In this issue: Obtaining, implementing and amending planning permission Biodiversity net gain Nationally significant infrastructure projects Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents Obtaining, implementing and amending planning permission MHCLG launches consultation on new statutory build out framework The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG) has opened a technical consultation seeking views on establishing a statutory build out framework. This framework would extend to qualifying residential developments of 50 or more dwellings, using powers in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 ( LURA 2023) and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Under the proposals, developers would be obliged to: submit a build out statement alongside their planning application to local planning authorities ( LPAs) for consideration serve a commencement notice on LPAs before any development commences on site provide yearly reports to LPAs on housing delivery progress MHCLG also proposes to bring into effect the new power in LURA 2023, s...
Background to NISTA’s formation Bringing the NIC and IPA together tackles the entrenched gap between high-level planning and on-the-ground delivery that has long hindered major infrastructure schemes. This move is backed by strong evidence: the Construction Leadership Council reviewed 20,000 schemes and found that thorough front-end planning cut costs markedly and sped up completion. The NIC’s 2024 report also singled out the split between strategy and execution as a key cause of rising UK infrastructure costs. By merging, government intends to streamline infrastructure development, trim red tape, and strengthen coordination across all facets of delivery. NISTA’s role and potential impact NISTA’s brief goes well beyond tidying up structures. It will act as the focal point for both strategy and delivery, from shaping the ten-year infrastructure plan to advising on private finance and delivery practice. In priority places like the Oxford– Cambridge Growth Corridor, NISTA will plan in the...
In this issue: Public rights of access Planning applications and decisions Nationally significant infrastructure projects Housing Daily and weekly news alerts Latest Q& A Related Documents Public rights of access Supreme Court holds that Dartmoor Commons Act right of access extends to wild camping ( Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority) In Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Mr and Mrs Darwall’s appeal, confirming that section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 ( DCA 1985) confers a public right of access that includes wild camping as open‑air recreation. Hannah Brown, senior solicitor, and Matthew Mc Feeley, Partner, at Richard Buxton Solicitors, with Rosie Brain, solicitor at Clarke Willmott, assess the ruling’s implications. Mc Feeley highlights that, aside from the core question of statutory...
Background This appeal examines the breadth of the public’s access rights over Dartmoor under DCA 1985, s 10(1). The court was asked to decide whether that provision gives members of the public permission to erect tents or otherwise camp overnight on the Dartmoor Commons (the Commons). Section 10(1) states, in effect, that, subject to the Act and observance of any rules, regulations or byelaws in force for the commons, the public enjoys a right of access to the commons on foot or on horseback for the purpose of outdoor recreation. The Dartmoor National Park ( DNPA) was designated as a national park in 1951 under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 ( NPACA 1949). Within DNPA there are areas of moorland that are privately owned, yet other local people hold rights to place their livestock there. The...
R (on the application of Tesco Stores Ltd) v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and another company [2025] EWCA Civ 610 What are the practical implications of this case? The Court of Appeal, in this judgment, returned to Hopkins Homes Ltd v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2017] UKSC 37 and Tesco v Dundee City Council [2012] UKSC 13, underscoring the separation between construing planning policy and putting it into effect in practice. Deciding what a policy issued by a local planning authority or the Secretary of State means is, as a matter of law, a question for the court to resolve. By contrast, deploying that policy when determining applications and appeals is for the decision-maker, and is amenable to challenge only on public law grounds. The Court of Appeal also stressed that construing policy should be...
In this issue: Planning policy Planning conditions, obligations and CIL When planning permission is needed Obtaining, implementing and amending planning permission Nationally significant infrastructure projects Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents Planning policy The interpretation of the sequential test in retail planning ( Tesco v SMBC) In R (on the application of Tesco Stores Ltd) v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and another company [2025] EWCA Civ 610, the Court of Appeal addressed the central question of whether the local planning authority had misconstrued and misapplied the ‘sequential test’ found in national policy and development plan policies for retail schemes, when deciding a planning application for a new supermarket on a site that was neither within nor on the edge of a town...
In this issue: Nationally significant infrastructure projects Planning and Infrastructure Bill Obtaining, amending and implementing planning permission When planning permission is needed Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents Nationally significant infrastructure projects High Court determines neighbouring solar farms did not create a single ‘ NSIP’ development ( Drayton Manor Farms Ltd) In Drayton Manor Farms Ltd v Stratford- Upon- Avon District Council [2025] EWHC 775 ( Admin), the claimant asked the court to confirm whether a solar scheme already permitted in 2023 (the 2023 Planning Permission) by the local planning authority ( Stratford- Upon- Avon District Council) nonetheless needed development consent under section 31 of the Planning Act 2008 ( PA 2008). The court also had to assess the practical and legal weight of a note attached to the 2023 Planning...
Drayton Manor Farms Ltd v Stratford- Upon- Avon District Council [2025] EWHC 775 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision, echoing Durham County Council & Hartlepool Borough Council v The Secretary of State for Levelling-up, Housing and Communities [2023] EWHC 1394 ( Admin), confirms that a High Court declaration remains the clearest route to dispel uncertainty caused by the grant of planning permission under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 ( TCPA 1990). It also sets out how to judge whether a power generation scheme is a self-contained project or an addition to an adjoining or neighbouring existing scheme. The judge held that interdependence is gauged by whether the scheme can operate entirely on its own. Expert evidence was examined on the degree to which the projects: occupy the same land could sensibly be conceived as a single, larger...
R (on the application of The Spitalfields Historic Building Trust) ( Appellant) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets and another ( Respondents) [2025] UKSC 11 What are the practical implications of this case? Many planning applications placed before a local authority are complex and, in practice, involve continuing discussions between the developer and the local planning authority that lead to alterations to the scheme. In such circumstances, it is commonplace for planning committees to defer determination to allow further negotiations to occur, with a revised scheme returning to committee for consideration at a later date. Those amendments arise from the ongoing dialogue. This judgment confirms that a local authority may lawfully include in its constitution standing orders that restrict the right to vote on an application deferred from an earlier meeting to councillors who were present at that earlier session. In effect, a...
In this issue: Planning and Infrastructure Bill Planning applications and decisions Planning policy Nationally significant infrastructure projects Planning appeals Flood risk and development When planning permission is required Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content No Weekly Highlights on 24 April 2025 Related Documents Planning and Infrastructure Bill The Planning and Infrastructure Bill underwent its second reading on 24 March 2025. Among the headline revisions are a discretion for local planning authorities to refuse future applications from certain parties in specified circumstances, and the creation of a third‑party right to appeal permissions that have been granted. The analysis provides a synopsis of key amendments, drawn from the Amendment Paper dated 9 April 2025. See News Analysis: Planning and Infrastructure Bill—second...
In this issue: When planning permission is required Planning applications and decisions Nationally significant infrastructure projects Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents When planning permission is required Welsh Government launches consultation on changes to permitted development rights The Welsh Government has opened a consultation seeking views on proposed changes to various permitted development rights in relation to: air source heat pumps ( ASHPs), off-street parking electric vehicle charging units, temporary camp sites, development by statutory undertakers, emergency affordable housing and interim uses, the definition of major development, and reverse vending machines ( RVMs). The consultation closes on 1 July 2025. See: LNB News 08/04/2025 45. Planning applications and decisions Crown development: new routes for planning application The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 ( LURA 2023) created two routes to apply for planning permission for the development of Crown land in England: where the...
In this issue Planning applications and decisions When planning permission is needed Nationally significant infrastructure projects Flood risk and development Buildings and building regulations Lex Talk®Planning: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents Planning applications and decisions Development Procedure ( Consultees) ( Wales) ( Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2025 SI 2025/400: This instrument modifies the Town and Country Planning ( Development Management Procedure) ( Wales) Order 2012, SI 2012/801, and the Developments of National Significance ( Procedure) ( Wales) Order 2016, SI 2016/55. The changes concern pre-application consultation and consultation ahead of granting planning permission. It takes effect on 21 April 2025. See: LNB News 01/04/2025 6. When planning permission is needed Court of Appeal rules EMF impact as material consideration in telecom development prior approval ( Thomas v...
Thomas v Cheltenham Borough Council [2025] EWCA Civ 259 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment will interest practitioners dealing with prior approval applications for electronic communication developments, and, more generally, those pursuing public law challenges about material considerations and appeals against High Court decisions. It reviews the Supreme Court's guidance in Friends of the Earth v Secretary of State for Transport [2021] UKSC 52 on three types of information that can amount to a material consideration. These include: information that legislation or policy, either expressly or by necessary implication, obliges the decision-maker to take into account or to ignore; and information that the decision-maker is entitled to consider where, in their own judgement and discretion, they regard it as appropriate. The judgment underlines that, within this third class, a decision-maker may choose not to refer to something others might regard as...
Background Old Truman Brewery Ltd, the second respondent, sought planning permission to redevelop a former brewery in Spitalfields. The proposal was placed before the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council’s Development Committee (the “ Committee”) at its meeting on 27 April 2021, attended by five members. On that date, the Committee voted unanimously to defer deciding the application. The matter returned to the Committee on 14 September 2021. By then, the Committee’s composition had changed from that of the 27 April 2021 meeting. The Council’s standing orders stated that, where a planning application is deferred and reconsidered at a later meeting, only Members who were present previously may vote on it. Consistent with that rule, it was announced at the start of the 14 September 2021 meeting that only councillors who had attended on 27 April 2021 were entitled to vote on the...
Key provisions of Part III of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill Environmental Delivery Plans ( EDPs) and a Nature Restoration Levy Part III proposes Environmental Delivery Plans and a Nature Restoration Levy to accelerate development by aggregating environmental mitigation. Rather than meeting bespoke ecological obligations for each project, developers would pay into a collective fund. Natural England would then deliver conservation actions using those monies. This marks a significant shift from the existing framework, which requires stringent case-by-case evaluations, consents tied to individual sites, and specific licensing for protected species. Approving EDPs—the ‘ Overall Improvement’ test EDPs may relate to any defined land area and can address some or all environmental features within that boundary. To bring an EDP into force, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government must decide it satisfies an ‘overall improvement’ test—namely, that the...
The Labour Government has stated in its reply that it will carry forward the former Conservative administration’s plans to cap the period for producing local plans at 30 months. These proposals introduce a six-stage process for preparing local plans and a six-month examination, with up to three further months where consultation on proposed modifications is required; any consultation pause cannot exceed six months. They also provide for three compulsory ‘gateway checks’ by inspectors, alongside simplified evidence demands on local authorities. LURA 2023 had set out within this proposed planning framework......
In this issue: Planning and Infrastructure Bill Planning issues in energy projects Planning applications and decisions Highways and rights of way Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Related Documents Planning and Infrastructure Bill MHCLG introduces Planning and Infrastructure Bill to Parliament The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG) has laid the Planning and Infrastructure Bill before Parliament. It sets out major reforms to accelerate and simplify the planning regime, including: swifter consenting for NSIPs and refreshed National Policy Statements, localised planning fees, a scheme delegating planning decisions, a nature restoration fund to support environmental interventions, a strategic planning system across England, stronger development corporations, and a simplified compulsory purchase process. The package aims to cut delays, reduce costs and drive economic growth while advancing the UK’s clean energy and climate...
Our verdict The Planning and Infrastructure Bill reached Parliament on 11 March 2025. It sits at the heart of the Labour government’s programme and aligns with its stated missions, which include kickstarting economic growth and making Britain a clean energy superpower, as well as its broader commitments to reform the planning regime to support development—including the delivery of 1.5 million new homes over the course of the current parliament. It is, by any standard, an ambitious package of legislation. However, even though many of the measures proposed are encouraging for developers, especially the reintroduction of spatial planning and the updating of National Policy Statements, significant challenges and uncertainties remain in practice, particularly concerning the sufficient and sustained resourcing of LPAs. LPAs will gain new powers to set their own planning fees, rather than rates being set nationally by the Secretary of State as is...
What are the key proposals in the consultation? Novel nuclear technologies—small and advanced modular reactors EN-7 will be the first national planning policy crafted specifically to cater for, and govern, nuclear generation beyond conventional gigawatt-scale stations. In particular, EN-7 will extend to small modular reactors ( SMRs) and advanced modular reactors ( AMRs). SMRs are compact iterations of established light water reactor designs, whereas AMRs are distinguished by innovative fuels and alternative cooling methods. This represents a significant break from earlier policy and is meant to enable nuclear schemes to be delivered in settings and for uses where large fission plants are ill-suited... A new approach to locating nuclear generation The existing NPS for nuclear generation ( EN-6) named eight sites regarded as potentially appropriate for gigawatt-scale nuclear developments, at which promoters could seek consent to build a station. Those sites were chosen following the...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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