Firms 'could struggle' as planning work takes off

Planning law solicitors are anticipating prosperous times owing to a growth in areas including compulsory

purchase and environmental assessment, but a leader in the field has warned that they risk driving the work into the hands of other professionals unless they are realistic about thevolume they can handle.

Stephen Ashworth, partner at Denton Wilde Sapte, spoke out after he clinched the title of leading individual in Planning magazine's survey of 110 planning lawyers, which also saw Berwin Leighton Paisner hold onto its crown for the sixth year running in the firm category.

Denton Wilde Sapte was second, with Eversheds in third.

SJ Berwin jumped five places on last year to come in fourth, but the highest climber was Linklaters, which leapt 22 places to join Leeds niche firm Wilbraham & Co in fifth place.

Mr Ashworth knocked that firm's senior partner, Peter Wilbraham, off the top spot and into second place in the individual rankings for the first time in five years.

SJ Berwin's Pat Thomas took third place, while her fellow partner Simon Ricketts shared fourth place with Michael Gallimore from Lovells.

Solicitor respondents predicted a growth of 12% in planning-related legal work in the next year.

The biggest areas will be compulsory purchase (19% cited this), environmental assessment (18%), judicial review (16%), planning gain (13%), and appeals and inquiries (13%).

Mr Ashworth agreed the growth was likely but warned that few firms were equipped to deal with more than one major project at a time without sacrificing quality.

'The challenge for planning lawyers will be to demonstrate that they can really add value to the projects, so that the work is not taken up by planning consultants and barristers,' he said.

Paula Rohan