Our housing team explores the Law Commission's consultation concerning the legal framework that governs co-operatives and community benefit societies.
Read moreHousing & Communities
Our dedicated housing team is one of the largest in the UK. We handle the full range of legal matters for the housing sector.
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With one of the UK’s largest dedicated housing law teams, we handle the full range of matters for regional and national affordable housing providers, housebuilders and leasehold management companies — providing the housing sector with one single place to go for all legal needs.
The new Chancellor has pledged to build 1.5m homes during the next Parliament which, if achieved, would approximately double the number of homes built under the previous Government.
With over 100 years of experience in the sector, we advise on large-scale regeneration projects, procurement matters and all manner of housing management, governance and regulatory issues. We also help our clients to deliver new corporate structures, increase loan facilities and fight unfair disrepair claims. Our experience on both the landlord and tenant side of critical issues gives us a strong understanding of the market.
Supported by the strength of our full-service law firm — with dedicated teams in construction, charity law, procurement, planning, regulatory, health and safety, employment and more — we collaborate to establish tailored client teams that best suit your needs and objectives.
Influential housing lawyers
Our team is led by Partner and expert governance lawyer Rupert Gill, who advises across both public and private housing.
We’re proud to be recognised in the top tiers of The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for our social housing excellence and have a deep understanding of the unique environment that registered providers operate in. Some members of our team sit on the boards of housing providers — giving us expert insights into their inner workings — as well as the Law Society’s Civil Litigation Sub-Committee.
Many individuals in our team are highly regarded and influential in the housing sector. Chambers and Partners recognises Ian Alderson as an ‘Eminent Practitioner’ and Alistair Fletcher as a ‘Senior Statesperson’ who is ‘pivotal to our success’. Ian and Alistair — alongside Rupert — are recognised as ‘Leading Individuals’ by The Legal 500, with Josephine Morton listed as a ‘Next Generation Partner’.
Adding value
As a certified B Corp with sustainability goals that include helping to deliver safe and affordable housing, we share the sector’s values. We also help many clients understand how the Building Safety Act impacts residential developments and work with a specialist environmental consultant to support clients with the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain. Through our Brabners Protect offering, we help the housing sector to proactively manage health and safety risks to ensure compliance with relevant legislation.
Our annual Just Housing conference is designed to provide the sector with legal updates from external consultants and intermediaries, as well as our own experts. At our 2023 event, we were delighted to be joined by representatives from Homes England, who shared insights into regeneration funding and the Housing Ombudsman, who helped to facilitate a discussion on disrepair claims.
We can solve your challenges
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Our services for the housing & communities sector
“The services we have received across a broad spectrum of areas within our business have been of a high quality and the users within our business consistently provide positive feedback.”
Your Housing Group
“Excellent breadth of knowledge… Everything available from one firm.”
The Legal 500, 2024
“Excellent advice which is bespoke to our needs. The whole team is responsive, knows our organisation well and clearly invests in its people.”
The Legal 500, 2024
“Josh Wing was excellent and really helped us to bring this sale to completion. He did a really great job of keeping me up to date and making sure that we made good progress, with a lot of back and forth between parties.”
Property Services Director, Castles & Coasts
Case highlights
Acquisition, development and grant funding
Advising Cobalt on the acquisition, development and grant funding in respect of a former car park site for 88 affordable homes for a mix of tenures. This is a significant regeneration project in Cobalt’s heartland of Croxteth in Liverpool. Advice was provided by our development, planning, construction and corporate teams.
Right to Buy and Right to Acquire
Advising Torus following a stock transfer on Right to Buy and Right to Acquire legislation and the question of remediation of title issues encountered on dealing with such matters. We also assisted in formulating a policy for dealing with this in future.
Landowner joint venture
Advising a property developer in a joint venture with the landowner, which involved a major supermarket, registered provider and residential developer, along with the redevelopment of a market hall. We advised on a range of matters including conveyancing, title investigation and vacant possession strategy, preparing and negotiating the JV, planning conditions and the acquisition of surrounding property.
Financing advice
Advising various major RPs on the provision of financing and loan facilities, including around term loan and revolving credit, bond issues, cross-corporate guarantees and debentures.
Acquisition of 260-unit site
Advising a significant registered provider on the acquisition and development of a 260-unit site for various tenures. We provided a full range of services, including charity, governance, funding, property, construction, planning and taxation advice for both the RP and its subsidiary Devco.
Anti-social behaviour possession claim
Representing Cobalt Housing in an anti-social behaviour possession claim after a fire broke out in the property when the tenant had overloaded the electrical system to support a cannabis growing operation.
Acquisition of commercial business
Advising Regenda on the purchase of the entire issued share capital of Eco-Gee — a commercial business that provides services used by Regenda that it intended to take in-house. This demonstrates part of the sector’s focus on partnership working and we were delighted to provide legal advice throughout the acquisition process, including on employment and property matters.
Net-zero bungalows purchase
Advising Torus on purchase of net-zero carbon bungalows. We carried out due diligence on the site and negotiated the sale contract with the developer’s solicitor.
Residential leases and leasehold schemes
Advising various registered providers on residential leases (conventional and new-build shared ownership) and leasehold schemes for the elderly, bespoke low-cost home ownership schemes and criss-cross (Tyneside-lease) disposals of maisonettes.
New homes partnership advice
Advising Torus on its partnership with housebuilder Castle Green Homes, which will see the delivery of around 589 new homes across four sites for a variety of tenures including shared ownership, affordable rent and open market sales.
Brokering joint venture agreement
Advising a special purpose vehicle (SPV) on a novel lettings concept where the owners were several major registered providers. We acted as an ‘honest broker’ to put a fair joint venture agreement in place that met all parties’ commercial requirements — protecting them from a governance perspective while allowing the SPV to operate autonomously (save for key decisions). We minimised legal costs that might have been incurred if each owner had been separately represented.
Related insights
The role of assessors appointed under the Equality Act 2010 has recently been explored by the High Court in Laidley v Metropolitan Housing Trust Limited.
Read moreIn Tindall v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police [2024] UKSC 33, the Supreme Court's revised the long-standing legal principle around public body liability.
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