Penny Simpson

Penny has very significant experience in advising developers on how to address and overcome environmental regulatory constraints to their developments (from legislation typically relating to environmental impact assessment, protected habitats, protected species and water resources).

Her expertise is often needed at the planning application stage, where she provides both strategic and more detailed advice to direct the optimum planning strategy, or where she intervenes to remove environmental based objections. She is also frequently retained following grant of planning to advise on the strategy to obtain subsequent environmental consents needed to deliver the development, such as protected species licences, environmental permits and abstraction licences.

Influencing emerging environmental law and policy

Penny and her team frequently provide both public and private sector clients with advice on emerging environmental law or policy. This allowed those clients to then take that advice and use it to inform long term business strategies or to put pressure on government or trade bodies to influence change.

Environmental training courses for environmental/planning/developer professionals

Penny has a national reputation for her self-devised and self-delivered day long environmental law training courses, aimed at environmental, planning and developer professionals. She runs a suite of different courses pitched at various levels and at various locations around the country. Penny is also often invited “in-house” to provide bespoke courses on various environmental law issues, depending on the specific needs of her clients.

Recent work

• Penny, working together with a wider professional team for a large strategic land acquisition client, has succeeded in securing changes to proposed housing and environmental protection policies within the proposed Bradford Core Strategy. The changes were needed so as to protect the development potential of her client’s 500 dwelling site. Penny’s expertise in habitat legal protection was key to securing the required policy changes which were achieved by attacking the Council’s approach to its “Habitats Regulations Assessment” through the examination and adoption process of the Core Strategy. Following this success, the client instructed Penny to advise on its planning application strategy. Penny’s work contributed to securing a ‘no objection’ from Natural England and other consultees on the nature conservation issues, followed by a resolution to grant planning permission from the Council. Since then, the Secretary of State has called in the planning application and so Penny is now working further to secure planning permission following an inquiry in May 2019
• Penny devised and delivered a strategy for a large housebuilder client so as to persuade Natural England to issue a “test case” protected species (Great crested newt) licence, allowing the client to proceed with its development over the winter period without first having to trap and move the animals from the development site. This delivered for the client a significant time saving of nine months and of course the associated cost savings. This “test” case has led the way to Natural England becoming more flexible in its approach to the issue of protected species licences to developers
• Penny devised and delivered a strategy to secure, for a national strategic land management client, a protected species licence from Natural England at an early stage in the project – before full planning permission had been granted. This was a significant achievement since Natural England’s policy is that full planning permission is a pre-condition to the issue of such a licence. Early issue of this licence enabled the client to sell the site to a housebuilder for development without delay and at full value with no ongoing environmental constraints to development
• Penny devised, for a large County Council client in England, a successful approach to environmental assessment and mitigation of its 1,500 unit development scheme project, taking into account the scheme’s air quality impacts on nearby sensitive habitats. Penny identified the strategy and arguments needed to present the project in compliance with key environmental legislation so as to avoid objections to planning permission, ensure a smooth path towards planning approval and to prevent any successful judicial review of the permission. Planning permission has now been secured
• In an urgent situation, Penny formulated a strategy for a Midlands-based housing developer to allow construction works to proceed at a 1,000 unit site, and therefore costs to be minimised, where protected species were unexpectedly found on the development site whilst works were already underway. The local Wildlife Trust and Natural England ultimately confirmed Penny’s approach to be acceptable
• Penny advised on a successful strategy to obtain, for a large national housebuilder client, a Great crested newt licence from Natural England so as to deliver a 750 unit scheme in Essex. In difficult circumstances, involving an outline planning permission which imposed an approach for great crested newts that was neither practical nor acceptable to Natural England (from whom the protected species licence was needed), Penny devised a new strategy that was ultimately accepted by the planning authority under the outline permission and which Natural England also agreed to licence. As such the development was delivered on schedule.
• Penny recently advised a Local Planning Authority on the correct approach they should adopt when assessing impacts of a development on protected species. This issue has been subject to much caselaw and the local planning authority needed clear advice on whether a particular development could be approved, given the significant level of local objection to it
• Penny has advised an industrial operator client on the implications of Brexit for its development projects in sensitive habitats areas, allowing them to prioritise the deliverability of their long term development interests
• Penny is currently working for two large non-governmental organisations on a large project focussing on identifying the challenges for continued legal protection of the marine environment given the UK’s decision to leave the EU. The result of this work will be used to put pressure on the government to maintain marine environmental standards as the EU departure process proceeds
• Penny advised a large UK non-governmental organisation on the (now adopted) Welsh Environment Act and its implications for the protection of the environment. Her advice was used to table amendments to the draft legislation, as it was debated through the devolved legislative adoption process
• Penny has been retained by the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management for the last five years to provide a variety of annual environmental law day-long courses to its members and non members. She gets excellent feedback from her courses
• In the last 12 months, Penny has provided to 10 separate environmental consultancy companies bespoke day-long training courses on various environmental law topics for their staff. Again the feedback has been excellent

Recent Work

• Patrick acts for a number of social housing clients on a wide range of transactions. These include large housing associations, affordable housing contractors and joint-venture entities
• Acting for United Living Group/ Partner Construction on a 200-unit development of purely affordable housing – one of the largest affordable housing developments in the UK
• Acting for Nottingham Community Housing Association on the redevelopment of a brownfield site (involving the partial demolition of an existing building), to be built as 80 homes over 3 phases
• Acting for Pelham Waterside LLP (a joint venture between a local developer and Nottingham Community Housing Association) on their prestigious waterfront development (recently shortlisted for an award) of 73 homes