19 Jul, 2024 The King's speech and the Government’s planning agenda By Max Howarth The King delivered his speech in the House of Lords on Wednesday setting out the Government’s agenda for the next parliament. At the...
09 Jul, 2024 Planning promises... Labour pledges to make a change By Mahnoor Butt After a decade and a half, Britain has woken up to a new Labour Government. There are several anticipated changes within planning as...
01 Jul, 2024 Subject access requests – when to weed out third-party data By Emma Watt Libby Hubbard There are things in life, like taxes and laundry, that we know are necessary for democracy and cleanliness respectively but are just a...
01 Jul, 2024 Managing change in law – Before, during and after a waste procurement process By Alex Lawrence The law is (almost) always changing. Whether that is a new case reinterpreting a long-standing doctrine or the government of the day...
28 Jun, 2024 Local authority employers - What's in a name? By Sarah Harnett Mispronouncing someone’s name can have significant implications, as shown by the recent case of Viveak Taneja. In summary, the Tribunal...
24 Jun, 2024 Do decarbonisation grants have too many strings? By Gayle Monk Over recent years, we have increasingly been advising local authority and social housing clients on their work to utilise decarbonisation...
21 Jun, 2024 Investigation into chatbot - a 'warning shot for industry' By Emma Watt The ICO has concluded its investigation into Snap Inc.’s use of its 'My AI' chatbot feature on the Snapchat platform. The My AI chatbot...
17 Jun, 2024 Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023: Compulsory purchase reforms By Emma Lloyd Stuart Evans On 1 March 2024, the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities wrote to chief planning officers in Homes England and all CEOs of...
17 Jun, 2024 Academies and LGPS pass-through arrangements By Doug Mullen The DfE has provided welcome clarity on what approvals are needed when an academy enters into an agreement with a contractor to share the...
10 Jun, 2024 LGPS surpluses – Could they help to plug a hole in local authority finances? By Doug Mullen With local authority finances under significant pressure and no sign of more money in the event of a change of government, creative ways...
10 Jun, 2024 Paying a forfeit - criminal acts and pensions By Doug Mullen A council tax and recovery team leader has admitted to de-frauding Aberdeen City Council of over £1 million over a period of 17 years. ...
04 Jun, 2024 Conditional contracts: Can a council as landowner (LPA) enter into a s106 agreement with itself, in its capacity as LPA? By Isham Souffi In some instances, a developer may wish to make a contract conditional on completion of a s106 agreement whereby the council is also the...