Laura is a Senior Associate in the Development and Planning teams.

Working with individual, group or corporate landowners and property developers, she provides support on a range of planning matters including providing advice on the need for planning permission, application procedures, interpretation and implementation of planning permissions, statutory infrastructure agreements and planning obligations, planning objections, appeals and public inquiries, HS2 blight and compensation schemes, public rights of way, planning enforcement and prosecution, and judicial reviews. She also provides planning advice and secures planning obligations for large mineral sites on behalf of national mineral operators.

She is experienced in negotiating with local authorities in regard to statutory infrastructure agreements and planning obligations, protecting the interests of the landowner or developer in respect of contribution amounts or terms and trigger actions. 

In addition, she carries out due diligence on planning history for development projects, acquisitions or corporate transactions to advise as to whether the necessary planning permissions are in place before such transactions are completed.

Recent examples of how Laura has supported clients include:

  • negotiating a difficult planning obligation to secure planning permission for student accommodation, all within a critical timeframe to ensure that the developer’s timescales for funding and commencing delivery of the project were met
  • securing a planning obligation for 1,500 dwellings, and ensuring that the landowner was not liable for any of the considerable obligations arising from the section 106 agreement with the developer; and
  • completing a complex planning due diligence review for a £15 million company and real estate acquisition within a short deadline.