29 06 2024
Planning Magazine’s Law Survey 2024 features 37 Landmark barristers
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Jenny appears regularly in planning inquiries and in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in judicial review and statutory review claims including those related to climate change, adequate consultation, legitimate expectation, water, heritage, Habitats Regulations, EIA, SEA, air quality, s.106 obligations and conditions, the GPDO, enforcement, interpretation of policy and adequacy of reasons.
Of notable interest, Jenny represented the successful claimant in the statutory review challenge to all the Green Belt allocations in the Leeds Site Allocations Plan. She also recently represented a community interest group in four successful High Court challenges relating to the protection of a local playing field.
Jenny represents developers, public interest groups, campaign groups, local authorities and central government agencies. She is currently advising a large unitary local authority in defending refusals of applications by HS2 under Schedule 17 of the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017. She is also representing National Highways in the High Court in statutory reviews of highway schemes. Additionally, she advises in relation to DCOs. Jenny has also recently represented hotel owners and Government contractors in successful High Court injunction proceedings (both defending against an application for a planning injunction and obtaining an injunction against protesters) relating to the emergency housing of asylum seekers.
On the non-domestic rating side, her practice includes cases in the Valuation Tribunal, Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Higher Courts, including in the landmark Divisional Court cases concerning empty rates relief (Makro, Kenya Aid, Digital Pipeline, Pall Mall and Public Health England). She recently represented the ratepayer in a case concerning the valuation of museums (Hughes (VO) v. Tyne & Wear Museums and Archives [2022] UKUT 206 (LC)) and she represented the Valuation Officer in the leading case concerning the valuation of tenant’s fit-out works in commercial offices (Bunyan (VO) v. Acenden Limited
[2023] UKUT 17 (LC)).
Jenny was formerly a solicitor at Stephenson Harwood.
Ranked in the Directories consistently as a leading silk (and previously a leading junior), Jenny Wigley is a ‘force to be reckoned with’ (Chambers and Partners, 2023). She is “a formidable High Court advocate” (Chambers and Partners, 2023).
She regularly appears in the Senior Courts in judicial review claims and statutory challenges. Her cases include two recent successes in the Court of Appeal (R (oao Whitley Parish Council) v. North Yorkshire CC [2023] EWCA Civ 92 and R (oao Wingfield) v. Canterbury CC [2020] EWCA Civ 1588), two successful Local Plan challenges (Aireborough NDF v. Leeds CC [2020] EWHC 1461 (Admin) and Jopling v. Richmond upon Thames LBC [2019] EWHC 190 (Admin)), an appearance in the Supreme Court (R (oao Wright) v. Resilient Energy Severndale Ltd [2019] UKSC 53) and countless more recent judicial reviews and statutory reviews in the High Court (scroll down for more examples).
Jenny is currently advising a large unitary local authority in defending refusals of applications by HS2 under the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Act 2017. She is representing National Highways in relation to statutory reviews of highways schemes and she frequently provides advice in relation to DCO schemes. She is also representing the Ministry of Justice in s.78 appeals promoting two new prisons.
She appears in planning inquiries, examinations and hearings relating to all aspects of development and enforcement for developers, local authorities and other interested persons. She has recently acted in High Court injunction proceedings relating to housing asylum seekers in hotels. She is advising in relation to the promotion of a 600 dwelling site through the local plan process. She has been successful in representing a Parish Council at a three week Inquiry as the sole party opposing an appeal for 800 houses in Essex on primarily transport grounds. She has appeared for a local planning authority in an inquiry successfully resisting the conversion of a listed public house to residential use, a case involving complex viability and heritage issues. She also acted for a developer in gaining planning permission for 150 houses on appeal in one of the first post-NPPF cases in which planning permission was granted notwithstanding the presence of a five year housing land supply and the site’s location outside the settlement boundary.
In addition to the many reported cases in which she has appeared in the High Court and Court of Appeal (scroll down below for more examples), Jenny has succeeded in achieving quashing orders by consent and other favourable settlements for both claimants and developers in many more judicial review and statutory review cases. She has appeared many times for claimants (public interest groups, campaign groups and noisy industries), local authorities and developers in judicial review and statutory review claims including, in particular, those related to climate change, adequate consultation, legitimate expectation, heritage, water, Habitats Regulations, EIA, SEA, air quality, s.106 obligations and conditions, interpretation of policy and adequacy of reasons. She has also appeared in a number of cases concerning the interpretation of the GPDO and the NPPF.
Jenny has written a number of articles on planning, rating and the council tax in both the legal and property trade press. She provides oral representation and advice, both written and in conference, on all aspects of judicial review, planning, rating and the council tax, compulsory purchase, highways and local government.
Jenny is experienced in advising and representing clients in the Senior Courts in cases relating to environmental impact assessment, habitats, air quality, water, pollution, ecology and climate change. She is well versed with issues relating to nutrient neutrality and water neutrality. Many of the High Court challenges she has undertaken involve complex scientific concepts relating to these matters.
Jenny Wigley KC has a strong practice in the field of non-domestic rating (local government tax). She regularly appears for rate payers, local authorities and the valuation officer in the Valuation Tribunal, Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Senior Courts, including in the recent landmark Divisional Court cases concerning empty rates (Makro, Kenya Aid, Digital Pipeline, Pall Mall and Public Health England – see cases below). One of her cases was for a football club and concerned the important issue of whether relegation from the Premier League can constitute a ‘material change of circumstances’ for rating purposes. She recently represented the ratepayer in a case concerning the valuation of museums (Hughes (VO) v. Tyne & Wear Museums and Archives [2022] UKUT 206 (LC)) and she represented the Valuation Officer in the leading case concerning the valuation of tenant’s fit-out works in commercial offices (Bunyan (VO) v. Acenden Limited [2023] UKUT 17 (LC).
Her cases of note in this field include:
Jenny co-edited the main rating text book, Ryde on Rating and the Council Tax, for 20 years from 2003 to 2023 and she has edited the rating chapter in Atkins Court Forms and the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.
During her time as a solicitor, Jenny practised in the commercial and property litigation department of city firm, Stephenson Harwood, where she also had conduct of the firm’s rating practice. During that time, she worked on the law changing case of Benjamin (VO) v. Anston Properties (which led to the Government introducing the Rating (Valuation) Act 1999) and the case of Coventry & Solihull Waste Disposal Co v. Russell (VO) ([1999] 1 WLR 2093) in the House of Lords.
Jenny represents clients in public law matters relating to planning, the environment and non-domestic rating law. She is very experienced in all aspects of Judicial Review and frequently appears in the Senior Courts for claimants, defendants and interested parties. She also appears in injunction proceedings relating to protests. Recently she represented Government contractors and hotel owners in obtaining an injunction against anti asylum seeker protesters who were blocking access to a hotel.
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Jenny Wigley is a force to be reckoned with. She is a formidable High Court advocate."
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