Infrastructure & Utilities
Our experienced team provides specialist legal advice on major and complex infrastructure projects including transport, energy, environment and planning matters. Our clients include rail and light rail (tramway) operators, dock and harbour authorities, local authorities, highways authorities and electricity and water undertakers. We have extensive experience assisting promoters and objectors regarding Development Consent Orders, Transport & Works Act Orders, Harbour Orders and Bills (Hybrid and private). Few teams in the UK can match our infrastructure caseload and track record of excellence in this area over many decades.
Areas we can help you with include:
- promotion of, and opposition to, Bills and Orders conferring statutory powers to construct and operate infrastructure
- compulsory purchase and compensation
- related property issues
- consultation and stakeholder management
- environmental impact assessment and other environmental issues
- planning and other statutory procedures
- contractual advice and drafting of agreements, undertakings and assurances
- regulatory law (including specific transport, energy and port regulation)
In collaboration with our colleagues in other specialisms across the firm, we also advise on outsourcing and procurement and the negotiation and drafting of commercial and construction contracts.
Our infrastructure experience
Rail Infrastructure
We have promoted all the recent hybrid Bills on behalf of the Government, including Crossrail and Phases One, 2a and 2b of High Speed Rail, and regularly act for Network Rail on the promotion of major schemes including East West Rail and the Northern Hub schemes (including Ordsall Chord and Manchester Piccadilly). We have been instructed on all the rail schemes to provide access to Heathrow. Our experience extends to the promotion of railway schemes on behalf of local authorities, including Hertfordshire County Council, and their interfaces with Network Rail, Transport for London, the Canal and River Trust and other statutory undertakers. At the other end of the scale, our long-standing and extensive heritage railway practice includes the promotion of Orders to enable the re-instatement of former railway lines for heritage and/or community rail purposes and the transfer of statutory undertakings. There is no other team in the UK with equivalent experience or expertise in this specialist field.
Light Rail Infrastructure
Our tramway experience includes acting for the West Midlands Combined Authority and its predecessor bodies for over thirty years. In addition to promoting the six private bills that established the tram network in the West Midlands, we have acted on the successful promotion of seven Midland Metro Transport and Works Act Orders between 2005 and 2020.
Ports
Our port experience includes work on behalf of clients including Associated British Ports, Port of London Authority and Harwich Haven Authority covering the authorisation of container and Ro-Ro ferry terminals as well as port facilities for aggregates, liquid fuel and offshore wind.
Energy Infrastructure
Members of our team have advised on some of the UK’s most important energy schemes under both the Transport and Works Act and Development Consent Order regimes. These include advising commercial and statutory undertaker clients on numerous renewable energy generation projects (Water to Energy, Solar PV and Wind) such as the East Anglian ONE and Hornsea Offshore Windfarm DCOs), advising the Government on onshore and offshore petroleum licensing, advising on innovative commercial arrangements for District Heating and the legal framework for other Community Infrastructure, and on recent regulatory developments and best practice in these areas.
Utilities
We have extensive experience in advising the utilities sector, including water and sewerage undertakers, gas transporters, public communications and others. We have acted on schemes for renewable sources of energy, including wind and wave power. Our lawyers also act for EV charging providers dealing with the legal documents required to install apparatus on land.
Telecoms Operators
We work closely with telecommunication operators and site providers, sharing their specialist knowledge and advice on a wide range of areas. Our team includes lawyers specialising in radio cell site property, property litigation, regulatory law, commercial contracts, planning and construction. The team’s property lawyers regularly handle a large volume of site acquisitions and site sharing between operators, variations to allow for equipment upgrades as well as advising on the specific requirements of retailers of communication devices.
