Paul Brailsford
Partner, National Head of Planning & Environment | Nottingham | London
"Paul Brailsford is an impressive operator - vastly experienced and a great strategic thinker. He brings calm assurance to challenges, is very practical and has an excellent manner with clients, who trust his judgment and return time after time."
The Legal 500, 2025
Call: 0345 050 3676 Mobile: 0792 013 5570
About Paul
Paul has over 18 years’ experience of complex development schemes nationwide and is well known for developing good working relationships with Local Planning Authorities in order to deliver success for his developer clients.
Paul specialises in both large scale development proposals such as retail led town centre regeneration projects and residential led urban extensions; and food and non-food retail development.
He advises on all associated issues from planning strategy, tactics, preparation and submission of applications and appeals and the preparation of complex Environmental Impact Assessments and Retail Impact Assessments.
Paul is listed as a Recommended Lawyer in The Legal 500 (2025 edition) in Planning and Environmental law, and is also recognised as a Leading Individual in Chambers & Partners (2025 edition).
Memberships
- Royal Town Planning Institute
Contact Paul
Call: 0345 050 3676
Mobile: 0792 013 5570
Notable work & expertise
Recent work
- Paul has led the Freeths LLP team advising Bela Partnership Limited on planning consultancy, planning legal and environmental legal issues with regard to the delivery of major developments (for example a major urban extension to Corby comprising 5,095 dwellings, 4 District Centres, 2 Neighbourhood Centres, a Secondary School, 3 primary schools, a hotel and 62,150 square meters of employment land across two local planning authority areas)
- Paul has advised Simons Developments and Tesco Stores in respect of the redevelopment of land assets in Portsmouth. Ultimately securing planning permission for a substantial out of centre retail and leisure proposal comprising circa. 75,000 sq ft of new floorspace. This included successfully dealing with difficult issues in respect of the sequential approach and retail impact in the face of objection from other retail asset owning funds in the City. Paul advised on complex planning obligations and Community Infrastructure Levy liability
- Paul successfully advised Barker and Stonehouse on securing planning permission for a new 40,000 sq ft state of the art flagship store on the former fire station site in Guildford. This involved difficult negotiations with the Highway Authority in respect of integration with and completion of wider program of highway works
- Paul advised Metropolitan Properties Investments Limited (part of the Freshwater Group) on the redevelopment of its land assets in Lowestoft to provide a new out of centre retail and leisure park, comprising circa. 75,000 sq ft of floorspace for Aldi and The Range amongst others. A difficult scheme to bring forward due to its out of centre location and associated retail planning issues, viability issues and Community Infrastructure Levy mitigation
Testimonials
CT
“Consistently recognised in The Legal 500 and noted for ‘strong reputation in town centre regeneration projects’ and being ‘commercial and pragmati...
Client Testimonial
"Paul works to a very good high quality and he's very commercially aware."
Chambers & Partners, 2025
"Paul Brailsford – planning team leader is an outstanding performer in the field. He uses his in depth knowledge to guide the project team to produ...
The Legal 500, 2024
“The Planning team lead by Paul Brailsford are extremely knowledgeable, easy to work with and have a very successful track record. I have worked wi...
The Legal 500, 2024
“Paul Brailsford is the stand out person. he gets involved every step of the planning journey and is an excellent communicator.”
The Legal 500, 2024
“Paul Brailsford is my key contact. He has an exceptionally wide range of knowledge regarding planning and the appeals process. You can always cont...
The Legal 500, 2023
“A real star – I have worked with him many times over the years – he has in depth knowledge and is commercially astute and highly effective.”
The Legal 500
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