About Martha
Martha is a Partner in our Real Estate department and leads our Planning Law team.
Martha has specialised for more than 26 years in working with stakeholders to deliver significantly complex, large, and politically sensitive infrastructure, development, and regeneration schemes.
She envisages her role as standing in the shoes of the client while working as part of a team to deliver a commercial outcome. Martha focuses on client service and rolling up her sleeves to unlock issues to find a way through, resulting in a positive outcome for all parties involved.
Martha has a broad client base, comprising developers, public limited companies, banks, landowners, investors, entrepreneurial businesses, social housing providers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, government departments, agencies and public bodies, infrastructure/utility companies, the wider community, and other agencies who are seeking to acquire planning permission in London or nationwide.
Martha has extensive experience in advising on planning law (all aspects of town and country planning and infrastructure under the Development Consent Order and Transport and Works Act Order regimes), as well as drafting and negotiating various agreements in order to move forward and deliver numerous infrastructure and regeneration schemes.
Examples include:
- significant height buildings in the City of London
- mixed-use developments
- student-accommodation schemes
- life-sciences schemes
- office developments
- luxury commercial and residential developments
- offshore wind farms
- transport and energy infrastructure schemes; and
- advising on data centres.
Martha has been appointed as a non-executive director, board advisor, and trustee by various organisations. She operates as an invaluable ‘critical friend,’ providing incisive, constructive challenge and support, and fostering environments of mutual respect. She combines her deep strategic vision with breadth of commercial acumen and expert knowledge for the execution of high-profile delivery.
She is currently the Chair of Royal Docks Waterways and an elected member of the City of London Corporation, where she is chairing the working group which is bringing forward the £9.5 million public realm transformation works on Fleet Street.
Martha regularly writes for many leading planning and real estate publications and is an Editorial Board Member for LexisNexis. She is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences.
- Advising the developer on all aspects of the redevelopment and planning application of the former GSK building into a new mixed-use development and public park.
- Advising a sovereign wealth fund on the redevelopment of Norfolk House into a luxury commercial development, which involved navigating sensitive heritage and conservation area issues.
- Advising the developer on strategic planning aspects, and drafting and negotiating a section 106 agreement (between the local council and developer) for a £350m residential-led conversion of the Centre Point Tower, one of the UK’s highest profile office-to-residential conversion projects.
- Advising the Joint Venture developer for more than 10 years on submission of all planning applications for Thames Gateway’s largest housing development, Barking Riverside, including outline, full, section 73 and reserved matters, subsequent discharge of conditions, and implementation of the project and masterplan.
- Advising the developer on multi-party negotiations and drafting of a section 106 agreement (between the local council and developer) for outline application for Heygate Masterplan (Elephant & Castle Regeneration) of 2,400 affordable new homes, new park and public realm and other legal agreements with Southwark Council, TfL, and the Greater London Authority.
- Advising the developer on the redevelopment of Bank and Monument tube stations, including environmental impact assessment, application of Transport and Works Act Order to construct and operate railways, and planning and listed building consents applications.
- Advising the developer on planning application submission for proposed first-of-its-kind agritech park at Hinxton, Cambridgeshire. Drafted and negotiated section 106 agreement between the local council and developer.
- Advising the developer on all aspects of the Local Development Order for the East Havering Data Centre Campus, Green Energy Infrastructure and Ecology Park Project application.
- Advising the developer strategically and procedurally on two proposed offshore wind farm arrays, with installed generating capacity of up to 1,200 MW.
- Advising a council on all planning work, including heritage, Compulsory Purchase Orders, Community Infrastructure Levys, judicial review, governance issues, drafting variety of planning agreements, attending as lawyer on the monthly planning committee, and attendance at regeneration board meetings.