Strategic Land

FSP’s Strategic Land team have experience “on both sides of the table” which means that we are well placed to advise both landowners and developer-promoters on these complicated but potentially very valuable agreements. We are often recommended into transactions where long-standing family solicitors are struggling with the different concepts, formulas and risk allocations that apply in these arrangements. Turning natural land into consented development land is the modern alchemy, conjuring value out of what can be unpromising assets. This can often bring rewarding levels of financial security to people who may have had land but only limited cash reserves previously. Our skills can help greatly in that process.

The Strategic Land team deals frequently with a range of “Strategic Land Contracts” (see our “Expertise” list below). These are often used to get developer or promoter expertise into the process of changing farmland or garden land into housing or commercial land, using their tactical planning knowledge and design expertise to farmers and landowners, who have a different skillset. The expert developers or promoters also manage and fund the process in return for a costs refund plus a discounted purchase price or a success fee, which works well when the landowners may be unfamiliar with the planning process, and asset rich but cash limited.

Of course, our legal expertise is very relevant and often used on former industrial or brownfield land too.

There are relatively few firms with meaningful experience of these complicated contracts, and none in the Thames Valley with the number of experts and range of experience that FSP has in this area of work.

Acting for a Promoter on a Promotion Agreement for a residential development scheme over a 25acre farmland site in West Sussex, with a draft allocation for 100 units.
Advising a family trust on entry into an Option Agreement with Wates Developments over 16 acres of land in Hampshire, for a residential development scheme conditional upon planning; advising on the interlinking of the client’s site into an adjoining site already under option with the same developer and the means of connection to the public highway for the proposed scheme.
Acting for a consortium of three adjoining landowners on the entry into a Promotion Agreement with Wates Developments over 8.5 acres of land in Surrey, for development as c.35 residential dwellings. Dealing with imposition of a ransom strip for the combined benefit of the consortium to be located on the land currently belonging to one of them.
Advising a farming family partnership on the grant of a Promotion Agreement over 95 acres of land in Berkshire with Rubix Land Limited; addressing the potential promotion of adjoining land being retained by the farming partnership together with the adjoining residential development; dealing with ransom strips to adjoining farmland and issues relating to highway access and high voltage power cables crossing the site; dealing with deferred premium payments, minimum pricing, and deferred consideration to apply on an eventual sale.
Advising a landowner on the grant of an Option for development of a large solar farm over c 80 acres in Cheshire with Anglo Renewables; advising on the terms of the lease to be granted to the solar farm operator and in particular the arrangements for remediation at term end and funding of a reinstatement deposit, the rights and logistics for delivery of power into and out of the site, tree management, shooting rights and potential future proximate residential development.
Advising a Promoter on two sales of consented land under promotion, both in Somerset (on which we had advised previously on entry into the promotion agreement) including on one of them making variations to provide for a second phase of consent and later sale.
Acting for two landowners on adjoining landholdings in Berkshire in relation to promotion agreements with Mactaggart & Mickel, including a proposed collaboration agreement.
Acting for a Promoter in investigating title to three separate sites each owned by three different landowners and entering into separate Promotion Agreements with each of them for rural sites, two of which are in Somerset and one in Devon; producing clauses dealing with the novel Biodiversity Net Gain requirements, arising from the new law in this area.

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