Bringing you thought provoking opinion articles from our experts and the recent news from within our Planning & Development division.

Our response to COVID-19

As we continue to monitor the ever-changing situation regarding COVID-19, we wanted to reiterate to you that, although our offices are temporarily closed, our Planning & Development teams are still working and can be contacted on their normal phone numbers.

All businesses requirements are unique and require a bespoke approach so, if you would like any help in understanding how the current situation may impact on your planning or development needs, or specific advice as to actions you should be taking, please get in touch with us.

To view our Planning & Development response to COVID-19, or to read our current outlook on the development market, please click here

Carter Jonas in the news

Following a national tender, our professionals have successfully secured a development partner on behalf of Homes England, for a prominent brownfield site in Fareham town centre.

The brownfield site, which extends to approximately 0.22 hectares (0.54 acres), included a now redundant Magistrates Court, that measured approximately 2,736 sqm and was subject to an outline planning application, submitted by Homes England, for a residential development of 45 apartments.

An initial ‘soft market testing’ exercise was undertaken to a select number of parties on an off-market basis. The testing was designed to evaluate the appetite for the scheme and inform the formal marketing exercise once planning consent was granted. However, due to the ongoing nitrates issue affecting the Solent, which is currently preventing local authorities issuing planning consents, the marketing strategy had to be revised so that offers were subject to a resolution being in place prior to completion. Despite the uncertainty, the marketing yielded several strong financial proposals from a variety of parties including affordable housing providers, residential developers and retirement operators.

Following the marketing completion, our professionals assessed each of the individual submissions, which resulted in providing a recommendation to the client of Churchill Retirement Living.

After a detailed legal contract negotiation, a conditional sale was agreed. This included an overage provision designed to capture any enhanced value achieved following additional planning consent submitted post-completion. A Reserved Matters application for a scheme comprising a minimum of 35 retirement apartments and associated parking will be submitted shortly by Churchill Retirement Living.

For further information, please contact a member of our team:

Ryan Harris
Associate Partner
01962 833376

Our London planning team recently received approval at Croydon Council’s first virtual planning committee for Brick By Brick’s Fairfield Homes scheme of 421 residential units, healthcare and commercial space, and extensive new public realm including pedestrian and cycle connections.

The scheme in central Croydon is designed by MICA Architects and Common Ground Architecture.

Our planning professionals worked closely with Croydon Council to lead the scheme through the pre-application discussions, as part of a Planning Performance Agreement. The team organised and participated in negotiations with the GLA and Croydon’s Design Review Panel. Our London viability team also prepared a financial viability assessment to justify the level of affordable housing. Construction is due to begin later in 2020.

For further information, please contact a member of our team:

Nick Taylor
Partner
020 7016 0733
nick.taylor@carterjonas.co.uk

Our development team have agreed the unconditional sale of a 5.48-acre (2.22 hectare) prime residential development site in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, on behalf of a private landowner to local housebuilder, SB Homes, who are currently developing another scheme in Slaithwaite.

The freehold site has an allocation for 36 dwellings under the Kirklees Local Plan and benefits from outstanding views across the Colne Valley. It also offers good access to public transport with Slaithwaite train station only 0.6 miles away. The site is an excellent opportunity to create a new housing development in a well-connected and popular village.

For further information, please contact a member of our team:

Steven Soper
Senior Surveyor
0113 203 1082
steven.soper@carterjonas.co.uk

On behalf of Enterprise Property Group Limited, our professionals secured planning permission for 28 homes at Steeple Bumpstead, Essex.

We worked with Braintree District Council, along with the design team, to make amendments to the proposals following the application’s submission. These amendments enabled planning officers to recommend the application for approval, despite a heritage objection to the scheme. Ultimately, the officers concluded that the public benefits of the proposals would outweigh the harm identified by the Council's Historic Building Consultant.

The proposals will deliver a high-quality development of 28 homes, including 11 affordable, significant open space and a footpath that has been identified as important to existing residents.  

For further information, please contact a member of our team:

Mark Hyde
Partner
01223 326825
mark.hyde@carterjonas.co.uk

The next edition of Planning & Development bulletin will be published in June, however you can keep up-to-date with our latest firmwide developments on the News & Events section of our website.

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Get in touch
@ James Bainbridge
James Bainbridge
FRICS
Chairman
01865 404437 Email me About James
@ Nick Taylor
Nick Taylor 
MRTPI MRICS
020 7016 0733 Email me About Nick Taylor
@ Colin Brown
Colin Brown
MRTPI
01223 326826 Email me About Colin
@ Steven Sensecall
Steven Sensecall
01865 297705 Email me About Steven
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John Webster
FRICS
0113 203 1063 Email me About John
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James is Chairman of Carter Jonas.  Formerly Head of the Planning & Development Division, James advises clients on proposed development projects throughout the south of England with nearly 30 years of experience in residential and mixed use development.  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 option, promotion and other development agreements, joint ventures and landowner equalisation 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.

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Nick is a chartered town planner and development surveyor with over 25 years' experience, gained across the residential, commercial, retail and industrial sectors for corporate, institutional and private landowners and developers. He has worked at CBRE and Drivers Jonas Deloitte. His professional experience is in three main sectors – Strategic Land / Projects, Retail / Mixed-Use and Central London. Strategic Projects / Land involves the promotion of land for commercial and residential development for landowners and developers. Retail / Mixed-Use schemes are a blend of edge of centre and town centre mixed-use schemes with food stores and other uses, often residential. This sector includes regeneration and waterside schemes. Central London focuses on projects from Canary Wharf to Hammersmith and Camden down to Wandsworth, Southwark and Lambeth.

When he isn’t working, Nick can be found playing golf (increasingly badly) and spending time re-stocking and emptying his wine cellar to indulge his passion for wine.

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Colin is a Partner and was appointed Head of Planning & Development Division in November 2020, he is based out of our Cambridge office.  He has over 25 years’ experience of planning consultancy and has a broad sphere of work.  He acts for a wide range of private, institutional and developer clients and has worked on significant planning applications and appeals.

He regularly instructs Counsel, and has appeared at a number of Local Plan examinations and in Section 78 and other appeals where he has often given evidence.  He carries out much land promotion work and has a strong track record of delivering planning consents taking projects through their entire process from site identification to construction on site.  

Away from work, Colin is Chairman of the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry and of the Cambridge branch of networking group, Interact.  He is also Chairman of the Dining Rights Committee at the Hawks’ Club, a sporting club in the City for Cambridge University sportsmen. He is a regular, if poor golfer, a keen cyclist and a committed, but somewhat less dangerous skier than he once was.

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Steven is Partner and Head of Planning Southern Region and is based in our Oxford office.

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John is Head of the Leeds office and the Planning & Development Team North. John advises clients on proposed development projects throughout the North of England.  He has over 30 years’ experience in residential and commercial 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.

John has specific expertise in Options, Promotional Agreements, Joint Ventures and Conditional Contracts, acting mainly for landowners.  John has been involved in projects such as new settlements, to city centre regeneration, provincial sites, large commercial developments and site sales.

The Development Agency team are currently instructed on 6,500 acres in 150 locations across the North West, Yorkshire and the North East.

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