A specialist law firm has joined forces with a local authority’s planning enforcement team in what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind.

London firm Ivy Legal has partnered with Ealing Council on its ‘Outhouse’ project to take action against rogue landlords. The firm provides the local authority with planning enforcement officers as well as legal advice.

Ivy Legal founder Izindi Visagie (pictured), a former local government planning lawyer, described planning enforcement as ‘technically and legally complicated’.

Working closely with planning enforcement officers, she noticed their work required ‘quite significant’ legal input.