James Owens

James joined Rapleys as a Planning Partner and Equity Partner in May 2022.James has a particular expertise in successfully taking forward planning proposals for large schemes, which have included complex schemes for housing (market, BTR, affordable, care), offices, life sciences, education, student, hotels, industrial, logistics, leisure and retail – in and out of town.  Often these have comprised major regeneration schemes.  Almost all involve difficult or sensitive sites, constrained by planning designations, operational requirements and other considerations.

Dealing with such a wide range of uses has also proved invaluable in successfully securing permission for mixed use schemes.

James focuses on successfully working with local authorities to obtain permission by negotiation where possible. Clients for these services are predominantly developers, landowners, financial and other institutions. Examples include British Land, Grainger, Transport for London, Dorrington, Deutsche Bank and Helical.

He provides planning strategy advice for projects, as well as assessing opportunities and constraints, submitting outline and detailed planning applications and appeals, preparing planning briefs, making representations to Development Plans to change planning policies, giving evidence at Inquiries and political engagement with councillors and MPs to maximise chances of success. Where needed, James also assists in managing teams of consultants through the planning stages of the project.

James is both a planner and a surveyor, with membership of both the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.