Planning White Paper - Legal considerations speakers

Richard Blyth has been Head of Policy Practice and Research at the RTPI since September 2011. Since then he has established the RTPI’s new policy paper series starting with Housing in 2013 and also the special RTPI Centenary Planning Horizons research programme with 5 projects being published in 2014. He is in charge of the RTPI’s work on Brexit and the RTPI’s England policy. Prior to this he was an Associate Director at Capita Symonds where he worked on commissions for local authorities on infrastructure planning to support core strategies, and for a number of private clients on regeneration schemes. He spent over four years in the Civil Service, including being responsible for Local Plans in England. Richard led a small team within the Joint Strategic Planning Unit which produced the last Berkshire Structure Plan and has also worked for district councils on local plans. He spent two years in the Gambia West Africa as a physical planning officer working on physical development plans and market regeneration.

Kathryn is a partner and joint-head of Shoosmiths’ Planning and Environment team, driving the team’s growth forward across the UK. An experienced planning lawyer, she acts on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious planning matters, including highways matters and compulsory purchase work, drafting and negotiating complex Section 106 agreements, judicial review, footpath/highway issues and town/village green. She is a Legal Associate member of the RTPI and ranked as a Leading Individual for Planning Law in both Chambers and Legal 500.

John Litton QC was called to the Bar in 1989 and took Silk in 2010. He is a leading silk in the areas of town and country planning, environmental law, highways, compulsory purchase & compensation and administrative law. He also practices in a broad range of civil and commercial litigation matters including complex rating cases. John regularly appears at public inquiries into development including housing, distribution warehousing, retail (food and non-food), town centre mixed use schemes, healthcare facilities, private householder development, purpose-built student accommodation, hotel development (including in the countryside), hostels, immigration appeal centres, football stadia, and motorway service areas. His planning work also includes promoting infrastructure development such as strategic rail freight interchanges, renewable energy projects, guided busways, new roads and major highway improvement schemes. He advises on Development Consent Orders, development plans (including neighbourhood plans) and has appeared at numerous examinations in public. He has considerable experience across all aspects of planning enforcement.

Rebecca is a Partner in the Planning and Environment group in the Sheffield office of the global law firm CMS. Her experience comprises a broad range of matters, covering covers contentious and non-contentious work for private and public sector clients, with a particular focus on infrastructure, energy and real estate. This involves advising on matters such as M&A and real estate deals, development/statutory agreements, permitted development and enforcement, Habitats and EIA Regulations, Development Consent Order applications and the use of compulsory acquisition powers

Both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners legal directories recognise her as a Star/Next Generation Lawyer with feedback from clients including that Rebecca has "deep expertise", she is "extremely organised and on top of things" and she is "an absolute star…great at energising and propelling a team through a case".

Chris is widely acknowledged as one of the leading planning barristers in the country, placing in the top 3 in Planning Resource’s top rated planning silks 2020. He acts for all of the UK’s leading house builders and many of the major land promoters and has an enviable track record at planning appeals.

Known for his work in the residential sector, Chris is advising on some of the largest development proposals in the UK, including several new settlements such as Cattal near Harrogate, Sibson Garden Village in Huntingdonshire and a 19,000 home proposal south of Bedford on the Oxford to Cambridge railway line and a number of major urban extensions. Chris also has extensive experience of promoting care home villages, large scale logistics parks, retail and employment developments.