Development Consultancy

James is Head of the Planning and Development at Carter Jonas and is based out of our London and Oxford offices. James advises clients on proposed development projects throughout the south of England. He has over 20 years experience in residential and mixed use development acting for private, corporate, institutional, charity and public sector clients. This includes site identification, project management of planning and development strategies, valuation and viability appraisals, marketing and sale of development opportunities. He has specific expertise in options, promotion agreements, joint ventures and landowner agreements. James has been involved in sites ranging from new settlements to city centre regeneration and smaller provincial and rural schemes, and also provides expert witness and independent expert valuation services for dispute resolution.

Robert is based in our London head office and heads up the national development team. He has over 20 years of experience as a developer and consultant advising private, corporate and public sector bodies on how to extract value from strategic property assets.

Three career highlights:

Park Road, Pontefract
At the very early stages in my career during the 1980s, I became involved on behalf of The Duchy of Lancaster, as Landowners, in respect of 35 acres off Junction 32 of the M62 and opposite the Racecourse at Park Road, Pontefract.

Having worked on the site through the late 1980s, I was pleased to be able to secure sales of land through the 1990s on a site which faced significant restraints on development including highways, overhead cables and planning.

The site eventually sold for development of a 135,000 sq ft Retail Park and an owner occupier in the form of GKN Chep was identified for around 10 acres, with the remaining 10 acres sold to a local Developer.  

The project provided valuable experience within the Development sector and illustrated how value for a large site facing complex development issues could be brought forward in a piecemeal fashion, provided it was properly managed through the planning process.  


Offices to Residential Development – Windsor House, Harrogate
Following the Government’s introduction of Permitted Development Rights for offices to residential I was asked to advise a prospective purchaser of an office scheme with which I have been involved for over 20 years.

My background knowledge of the Commercial sector enabled us to provide valuation advice in respect of c. 37,000 sq ft of buildings, but also give confidence to the purchaser that vacant possession could be obtained on the parts proposed for residential development, whilst those parts where vacant possession could not be obtained could be sold on to prospective investors.

Over a very short timeframe I was able to negotiate termination of four remaining Leases in order to provide 20,000 sq ft of vacant accommodation on completion of the purchase.  I also secured the simultaneous sale of 7,000 sq ft effectively to an owner occupier of the office buildings and a simultaneous sale of a 10,000 sq ft building, which remained let and sold as an investment.  

The project is now complete and the residential conversions have achieved record values in the Harrogate marketplace.


Northallerton Gateway
Over a lengthy period of my career I have been involved in a development site immediately to the north of the market town of Northallerton.

Acting on behalf of a local farming family I first advised in respect of a site allocated in Hambleton’s Local Plan for 10 acres of commercial use.

Having advised the Landowners on a Development Agreement with a Developer, the scheme evolved into a 25 acre development with around 20 acres of residential development.  Over time and through agreement with the Local Authority, recognising their local housing need, the project evolved into essentially 55 acres of residential development.

The scheme was incredibly complex, involving around 7 Landowners and eventual Planning Permission granted for 900 units and was dependent upon significant Grant Aid being available for creation of infrastructure, particularly a road bridge across the main East Coast railway line.

To me the scheme epitomises the need for communication with the client, trust between the development team and patience to wait for a scheme to evolve - in this case over 20 years.

The project also illustrated the impact of the fluctuations in the property market.  At various stages in the development process the site had virtually nil hope value, at other times aspirations were raised on the back of perceived residential values.  In the end a pragmatic approach, taking into account the extensive infrastructure required, was the only way the objectives of the Landowners, the Local Authority and Developers could be met.

Matthew has acted for a wide number of Landowner Clients including:

• Royal Estate Sandringham
• Crown Point Estate
• Cecil Family Trust
• Greene King Plc
• North Hertfordshire College
• Cemex
• May Gurney
• Pigeon
• Advice, marketing, disposal and additional tranche disposal of 1,500 unit Residential Development in Grantham.

Project team principle for disposal of the NHC Centre of the Arts, Hitchin, securing a Development Partner and assembling a professional team to progress an application, sale and disposal of a principal asset within the College’s portfolio 

Mathew has over 29 years' experience in the property industry and has been directly involved Residential Development in East Anglia since 1998. He specialises in Land Disposals and Acquisition; Strategic Land, Promotion and Option Agreements. He has acted for a wide range of private and public sector land owners companies including Greene King, Royal Estate Sandringham; Grant Thornton, Pigeon, Crown Point Estate, Cemex (formerly RMC), The Diocese of Norfolk & Norwich and North Hertfordshire College as well as private land owners across the region.

He is Head of Residential Development at the Cambridge Office.

Adam is a Partner within the Planning & Development team and is based at our Chapel Place office.