Housing & Communities

We help our housing clients with rationalisation and estate management, including leases, consents, variations, enfranchisement, staircasing and Right to Buy and Right to Acquire disposals. 

We also advise on disputes, arrears recovery, service charges and the enforcement of contracts and covenants, as well as navigating new home ownership products, the move towards social rent and the challenge of balancing the funding of maintenance programmes and decarbonisation with the need to build new homes.

Our team is led by Helen Brown, who handles issues such as freehold and leasehold acquisitions, developments, disposals, lease management instructions, estate management and asset management, and Josephine Morton, who’s experienced in all areas of contentious housing management, including advising on breaches of tenancy, Article 8 defences, mental health and capacity issues, injunctions, possessions, committals, debt recovery, rent arrears, trespass and left in occupation claims, succession, gas access, hoarding, property condition, housing disrepair and data protection.

We can assist with:

• Site acquisitions using option agreements, conditional contracts and development agreements, as well as Section 106 purchases.
• Structuring your transactions, including through joint ventures and framework agreements.
• Business-critical plot disposals through outright sale or homeownership products.
• Mitigating risks associated with contract and construction disputes.

With the Social Housing (Regulation) Act causing companies to re-examine how they operate and the Housing Ombudsman’s increasing powers to enforce and inspect with regards to company culture, governance is only growing in importance across the housing sector. 

Indeed, the Grenfell report has reinforced this — focusing on the “toxic” relationship between the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation and the residents of the tower who regarded it as an “uncaring and bullying overlord that belittled and marginalised them”. Given that any landlord’s primary duty is to provide a safe and decent home, the current focus is going to scrutinise every registered provider’s governance to meet this requirement.

Our experts provide training and advice on governance to a wide range of clients, from registered providers to private and public companies. This level of immersion and cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge allows us to offer the practical advice you need.

Our team is led by Rupert Gill, who provides specialist guidance on corporate governance matters, constitutional issues, changes to model rules and intra-group agreements.

The housing sector is in a period of consolidation, which may well be exacerbated by the most recent changes brought about in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act. With many registered provider groups acquiring private companies — whether to provide an in-house direct labour organisation (DLO), provide additional services or act as a source of additional income — RPs need expert legal advice in this critical area. 

Our team has been involved in many mergers of RPs across the north — whether through leading the process (such as in the creation of what is now Torus) or providing due diligence support to the likes of Two Castles and Karbon. We’re recognised by Experian as one of the most active private sector dealmakers and can provide social housing providers with the expertise and resource needed to support, guide and implement these key projects.

Our team is led by Rupert Gill, an expert M&A lawyer in both the registered provider and private sector fields.

Our construction team is led by experienced lawyer Elspeth Christie, who has a strong background in non-contentious construction law and has served as an adviser on major UK-wide developments, acting for a range of clients including developers, contractors, tenants, purchasers and funders. She’s supported by Legal Director Adam Jason.

We assist with: 

• Negotiating building contracts, professional appointments, warranties and performance bonds to manage construction risks.
• The planning process, including Section 106 and other agreements.

Our public procurement expertise means that we can help social housing clients to navigate public procurement law throughout all stages of the procurement lifecycle — providing end-to-end project support and the right mix of specialists at the right time. Many of the housing clients we advise will have some need for procurement law advice — whether that’s at the outside of the procurement lifecycle when considering if the law applies, the tendering process or to assist with challenges to procurement decisions. We’re often called on to advise how best to proceed with a development of land for housing in a manner that meets commercial and financial requirements while also complying with procurement law.

Over the course of 2024, registered providers of social housing will need to understand how to manage both the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for ongoing procurements, as well as put in place processes and mechanisms to comply with the Procurement Act 2023. The new Act will apply to all new procurements started after 28 October 2024. We can assist clients in getting to grips with the new Procurement Act 2023 and understanding what they need to do to comply with it.

Our team is led by experienced commercial lawyer Michael Winder. He’s supported by a team of procurement law specialists who’ve worked with our housing clients for many years. We understand how to align your needs and processes to comply with procurement law. We advise private sector companies and property developers on their bids for public contracts and how to challenge award decisions, which provides us with an invaluable view of procurement from both sides.

Our award-winning employment, pensions and immigration team is one of the largest, most experienced specialist employment teams in the UK. 

With an array of housing sector specialists, we provide a holistic service to registered providers of social housing (RPs) — offering bespoke, pragmatic and strategic advice on complex employment issues and project work. The RPs we work with are typically forward-thinking, innovative and large regional RPs looking to implement dynamic people strategies and change management projects (including restructures, mergers, agile working and TUPE). We understand that RPs need to operate in an agile and efficient manner to provide value for money.

We also advise on diversity, equity and inclusion, manage highly sensitive Board and senior management team employment issues and exits as well as how to successfully navigate and build relationships with trade unions in what can be heavily unionised environments.

Headed up by Nick Campbell, our team also advises an extensive range of private sector clients and therefore brings a sense of pragmatism and commerciality to all work with RPs.

Complex issues

Given the housing sector’s regulatory framework and the important and public-facing role that RPs play in their local communities, we know that complex issues can arise in relation to people matters. 

We specialise in the handling of complex whistleblowing cases, helping RP clients to navigate complaints raised and coordinating both internally managed and independent investigations as appropriate. Our work has also included reviewing executive contracts, redundancy policies and redundancy/severance payments to ensure compliance with the NHF Code of Conduct and/or the NHF Code of Governance.

Immigration

Our immigration experts advise on the full spectrum of immigration issues, including the sourcing and transferring of the best candidates, complex employment and right to work issues. We also provide training to employers on the prevention of illegal working, as well as UK visas and immigration compliance audits.

Pensions

Our pensions team has the necessary expertise to support you with defined contribution and defined benefit pension schemes, including exits from LGPS and SHPS. In particular, we have a great track record of successfully supporting RPs in securing (often material) exit credit payments on LGPS exits. 

We also advised on the first ever SHPS bulk transfer to a wholly new DB pension scheme outside of TPT. 

Our banking team works for registered providers (RPs), banks and private companies.

With complex regulatory and funding requirements applicable to development and property arrangements, it’s imperative that RPs are thoroughly and clearly advised to support financial sustainability.

We advise on funding arrangements and grant agreements and can manage your securitisation projects.

Andrew O’Mahony has worked in the banking and finance sector for more than 25 years with a wide variety of borrowers (including corporate, individual and registered housing providers) and lenders (including clearing banks, alternative and secondary lenders, debt funds and private equity investors). 

He has over 15 years of expertise in advising RPs on borrowing requirements, which range from full-form LMA loans and security documentation with clearing banks to loan and security documentation with alternative funding providers such as under the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme, Homes England or bLEND Funding plc. He also advises RPs on their intra-group funding arrangements. Given this experience, Andrew is able to quickly identify the key issues and ensure that financing is completed within the necessary timescales.

Lisa Robotham specialises in residential property development, site set-ups, securitisation, acquisitions and disposals and helps to manage our home ownership team, especially with regard to shared ownership disposals. She works on many funding projects and brings a deep understanding of lenders’ requirements to lead securitisation projects for various RPs as well as carrying out stock appraisals and advising on remedial work to update and improve registered titles, making them ready for financing projects. 

Lisa provides workshops to clients to walk them through the securitisation process and provide guidance and advice on managing the project. Often, securitisation involves due diligence and the charging of thousands of properties — so strong leadership and an efficient approach is essential to deliver the project on time. 

Our experienced team can deal with your securitisation projects and provide the support you need. We’ve worked on projects with various lenders and security trustees on brownfield funding and the Government’s Authorised Guarantee Scheme and provided advice on Homes England funding requirements.

Our regulatory team advises housing clients on regulatory, health and safety and building safety matters. 

Led by Lachlan Nisbet, with support from the likes of Claire Burrows and Matt Coles, the team offers extensive experience in investigations and prosecutions involving agencies like the Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency.

Health and safety

All organisations must comply with health and safety laws to protect employees, tenants and contractors. Registered Providers (RPs) should manage these risks proactively to ensure that health and safety is a board-level priority. All RPs are regulated by the Regulator for Social Housing.

Our team represents individuals and businesses operating within both the private and social housing arenas in relation to risk management, investigations, prosecutions, enforcement actions and financial and reputational management. We focus on proactive risk management, offering guidance and training to help clients reduce risks and meet their legal responsibilities.

Building safety

The Building Safety Act 2022 introduced new standards for managing residential and mixed-use property safety. It defines roles for dutyholders and established regulatory bodies like the Building Safety Regulator, the National Regulator for Construction Products and the New Homes Ombudsman.

Our team provides expert advice on compliance, investigations and prosecutions related to building safety regulations.

Crisis management experts

Our crisis management service offers rapid incident response to guide you through the aftermath of serious incidents. Our team has extensive experience in managing regulatory investigations, responding to enforcement actions and defending against (or mitigating) prosecutions. 

Brabners Protect

Brabners Protect is a proactive health and safety legal solution for organisations, aimed at identifying and managing risks to avoid accidents and legislative breaches that could result in enforcement action, investigations or prosecutions. 

Our bespoke packages aim to upskill internal compliance teams, create safe working environments and minimise the risk of legislative breaches.