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Tim Baines

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Tim Baines is a partner in the London environmental and planning team of Mayer Brown. Tim has a particular interest and background in advising companies and financial institutions in the real estate, energy and sustainability sectors. He has considerable knowledge of UK planning and environmental regimes, renewables incentives regimes, and emissions and climate-related matters.

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Building abstract

In a survey carried out by HSBC in 2023, 97% of real estate developers and investors said net zero was important to their business and 59% of the largest real estate companies said net zero was their top priority.

A third of companies in the sector already have Transition Plans and the push for formalising Transition Plans across the sector is increasing.

In April 2024, the Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) published its final set of transition plan resources to help businesses transition to net zero. Continue Reading Transition Plans & Real Estate

Last week the UK Government published its long-awaited proposals for reform of the planning system in England and Wales, in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill.

Back in June 2020, radical reforms to the planning system were proposed, including introducing zoning and deemed planning permission in designated growth areas.  Despite the abandonment of these far-reaching reforms, the proposals set out in the Bill, are significant.  The main changes are as follows.Continue Reading Levelling Up and Planning Reform

Overview
The Government is introducing sweeping changes to the planning system in England, with a view to cutting down on bureaucracy and letting the market decide what we use our buildings for, as well as facilitating much needed housing development. The changes are both medium term and immediate. In this Alert, we focus on the

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Much has been written about the sweeping changes the Government is introducing to extend permitted development rights and limit the need to obtain planning permission for changes of use.

But on 2 September 2020 Mr Justice Holgate ordered that an application for leave for judicial review challenging these new laws would be heard on 8…

Although it is uncertain what the likely long-term impacts of the pandemic on the development industry will be, the short-term impacts are clearly significant.

The real estate development industry is looking to the Government for immediate relief in the following areas::

  • automatic extension of the deadline for commencement of development under planning permissions;
  • the introduction

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