On Friday September 29th, the teams across all Howells Solicitors offices came together to host special Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Mornings and raise vital funds for this worthy cause. Through cake sales and donations, we collectively raised a fantastic £555.52 for Macmillan! 

More...

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected all of us in some way, and property landlords are feeling the consequences of their tenants having to shut shop or offer reduced services to ensure social distancing rules are met.

In this post, I outline your legal rights and what actions you can take if your tenant is struggling to make payments. More...

If your present commercial lease is no longer meeting your business needs or you are unable to keep up with rent payments due to the impact of COVID-19, you may wish to exit your lease early. There are several options available to you as a tenant depending on the terms of your lease and your surrounding circumstances. These are as follows: More...

Over recent years, the development industry has witnessed a significant increase in the number of challenges to planning permissions granted by a local planning authority or by the Secretary of State on appeal.

Even when unsuccessful, such challenges have caused significant delays, due to the time taken for the courts to deal with them. Development is delayed for, at best, many months and at worst several years.

The industry should therefore welcome the opening of a specialist Planning Court

The new court should ensure that cases are dealt with more quickly. Another advantage is that its judges will be planning law specialists, which should also lead to better and more consistent decisions.  It is also hoped that more specialist judges will be more inclined to refuse permission for weak challenges to proceed to a full hearing.

Cases will not automatically be heard by the Planning Court however, which will only hear cases that concern planning and environmental issues if they are significant. More...