Must read

Establishing relevant defects under
the Building Safety Act
The First Tier Tribunal has provided helpful clarity on what amounts to a
“relevant defect” for the purposes of Remediation Orders and Remediation
Contribution Orders under the Building Safety Act 2022, writes Sarah Grant.
Establishing relevant defects under
the Building Safety Act
The First Tier Tribunal has provided helpful clarity on what
amounts to a “relevant defect” for the purposes of
Remediation Orders and Remediation Contribution
under the Building Safety Act 2022, writes Sarah Grant.


The Employment Rights Act 2025:
What Public Sector Employers Need to Know
Many of the changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025 will have a significant
operational and financial impact on public sector employers, particularly
local authorities and schools, where large workforces, high levels of unionisation
and public accountability increase exposure to risk.
The Employment Rights Act 2025:
What Public Sector Employers Need to Know
Many of the changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025 will
have a significant operational and financial impact on public
sector employers, particularly local authorities and schools,
where large workforces, high levels of unionisation and
public accountability increase exposure to risk.


The Practical impact of the Procurement Act 2023
– the challenges, the benefits and the legal lacunas
In the second of three articles for Local Government Lawyer on the Procurement
Act 2023 one year after it went live, Katherine Calder and Victoria Fletcher from
DAC Beachcroft consider some of its practical impact and implications, including
how to choose the right regime, how authorities are tackling the notice requirements,
considerations when making modifications, and setting and monitoring KPIs.
The Practical impact of the Procurement
Act 2023 – the challenges, the benefits
and the legal lacunas
Katherine Calder and Victoria Fletcher from DAC Beachcroft
consider some of its practical impact and implications,
including how to choose the right regime, how authorities
are tackling the notice requirements, considerations when
making modifications, and setting and monitoring KPIs.


Weekly mandatory food
waste collections
What are the new rules on food waste collections and why are
councils set to miss the March deadline? Ashfords’ energy
and resource management team explain.
Weekly mandatory food
waste collections
What are the new rules on food waste collections and why are
councils set to miss the March deadline? Ashfords’ energy
and resource management team explain.


The Procurement Act 2023: One Year On -
How procurement processes are evolving
Katherine Calder and Sarah Foster of DAC Beachcroft focus on
changes to procurement design at selection and tender stage in
three key areas of change that the Act introduced.
The Procurement Act 2023: One Year On -
How procurement processes are evolving
Katherine Calder and Sarah Foster of DAC Beachcroft focus on
changes to procurement design at selection and tender stage in
three key areas of change that the Act introduced.


Service charge recovery
and the Building Safety Act 2022
Zoe McGovern, Sian Gibbon and Caroline Frampton set out
what local authorities need to consider when it comes to
the Building Safety Act 2022 and service charge recovery.
Service charge recovery
and the Building Safety Act 2022
Zoe McGovern, Sian Gibbon and Caroline Frampton set out
what local authorities need to consider when it comes to
the Building Safety Act 2022 and service charge recovery.

Assets of Community Value – a sporting revolution
A new generation of development corporations
Further reform for public procurement – The British Goods and Services Bill
Titchfield Festival Theatre - the new chapter. Or not, as it happens
Housing offences and increased penalties
Establishing relevant defects under the Building Safety Act
Companies House Reform: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023
Permission for Take Off: £205m Cardiff Airport Subsidy Authorised by the CAT
New Regulations for the Use of AI in Court Documents?
The Employment Rights Act 2025: What Public Sector Employers Need to Know
Expert evidence in children proceedings: principles for practice and better outcomes
Children law update - Easter 2026
Officer reports and decisions to close care homes
Ordinary residence - Worcestershire revisited?
Good practice in post-adoption contact
An ‘intolerable’ deprivation of liberty – and the need for reasons
DfE land transactions guidance 2026: For academy trusts and schools
The neighbourhood health framework
Capacity as a social construct, and the problem of untangling the spider’s web
Public money and double recovery
The new Housing Streamlined Route
Changes to the written representations procedure process for appeals
Planning committees and delegation
Injunctions to restrain breaches of planning control
Who bears the burden?
Lawfulness and applications for a CLEUD
The OIA’s 2026 operating plan: What universities need to know
The Cardiff Airport subsidy control ruling
White Paper on SEN reforms: some lessons from the current Welsh SEN system
Greyhound racing and the separation of powers
CILEX and others v Mazur and others [2026] EWCA Civ 369
The Hillsborough Law Bill: implications for public bodies
Dispensing with notice to father
Court of Protection case update April 2026
The new PD27A: a step change in Family Court bundle and document management
Déjà Vu – the implications of Zenobē Energy’s latest case for local government
The ERA – Benefits and Working Conditions
£150m Clean Maritime Grant Competition Opens – Critical Subsidy Control Steps for Applicants
Failure by Employers to Keep Holiday Records Becomes a Criminal Offence From April 2026
Why I Wanted to Explore Intensity of Review Across the UK and New Zealand
Asylum hotels, overcrowding and the HMO rules
Practical impact of the Procurement Act 2023 – the challenges, the benefits and the legal lacunas
Intentional homelessness and tenancies obtained by false statement
Defective but not fatal
Self-grants of planning permission, functional separation and demolition avoidance
The lawfulness of emailing licensing decision notices
Intervention: the Monitoring Officer’s view
The role of the backbench councillor
FOI and information held on computer systems
Sentencing guidelines for HSE offences and public bodies
Correcting mistakes in public decision making
The Supreme Court on termination of JCT contracts
Weekly mandatory food waste collections
Weekly mandatory food waste collections
Housing delivery stalling - role of local authorities
Renters’ Rights Act 2025 - what it means for local authorities
DOLS and Under 16s: Insights from Medway Council v A Father
The Local Power Plan: Putting Clean Power in Communities’ Hands
The powers of exclusion panels
Removal from kinship care
When school discipline meets disability
Navigating the expansion of foster care
Personal welfare deputies – Lawson and Mottram strikes back?
No "clinical decision" exemption from best interests
Local Government Reorganisation 2026
Adoption vs long-term fostering
Evolution of the academy trust and maintained school landscape
Care leavers and redaction of records
“Unusual facts and procedural irregularities”
Planning appeals and costs awards
Refusal of planning applications against officers’ advice
Land value and the principle of reality
The latest Sizewell C JR
Impecuniosity and other issues in credit hire claims
Anti-Money Laundering: Key Issues for Local Government Legal and Governance Teams
Arts and Culture, Community and Regeneration: The Two New Streamlined Subsidy Routes
Disclosure to the DBS
The CAT and the New Lottery Subsidy Control challenge
Gender-questioning children under draft KCSIE 2026
Accelerating the planning appeals process: unintended consequences
The convergence of DRS, Simpler Recycling and EPR
Reserve below-threshold contracts for UK or local suppliers under the 2026 Order
CMO Principle and Financial Assistance Further Clarified in Latest CAT Judgment on Subsidy Control
Make Europe Build Again – The EU Industrial Accelerator Act
Affordable housing funding news & unlocking S106 units
The Social and Affordable Housing Programme 2026–2036: new guidance
Council launches claim against water company and landowners to repair sinkhole
- Details
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has issued legal proceedings against a water firm and a landowner over a sinkhole that has afflicted residents on a residential street since 2019.
The city council says it issued proceedings at the High Court against Severn Trent Water Limited and Redrow Homes Limited at the High Court to ensure the highway is repaired.
In a statement, the council said it had received extensive expert legal and engineering advice in respect of the defect on a highway at the junction between Boatman Drive and Waterlily Close in Etruria.
Sinkholes have been appearing on the road as early as 2019, with one report from BBC Radio Stoke in September 2019 suggesting the subsidence had become a "tourist hotspot".
Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesperson said: "We know the impacts which the highways issues at Boatman Drive are having on the lives of local residents and we are committed to ensuring that the highway is repaired and brought back into proper use.
"Now our investigations have provided more certainty around the underlying cause of the damage to the highway, the matter is now subject to legal proceedings and as such, it would not be appropriate to comment any further on this matter at this stage."
A Severn Trent spokesperson described the claim as "entirely speculative", adding that the firm would "robustly defend" it.
Redrow Homes has been approached for comment.
Adam Carey
22-04-2026 11:00 am
01-07-2026 11:00 am





