Hugh Flanagan > Francis Taylor Building > London, England > Barrister Profile
Francis Taylor Building Offices
FRANCIS TAYLOR BUILDING, INNER TEMPLE
LONDON
EC4Y 7BY
England
- Set Profile
- Go to...
Hugh Flanagan
Work Department
- Planning
- Infrastructure
- Compulsory Purchase and Compensation
- Rating
- Local Government
Position
Hugh Flanagan has a practice encompassing all aspects of planning, major infrastructure, and compulsory purchase law. He specialises particularly in energy (including renewables), transport, waste, and residential projects, as well as compensation, land valuation and rating. He acts for developers, individuals, central government and local authorities. He frequently appears in courts and tribunals at all levels up to the Supreme Court, as well as at planning inquiries and examinations. He is a member of the Attorney General’s A Panel of Counsel, in which capacity he acts for the Government in significant planning and public law cases, and he is an editor of the Encyclopaedia of Compulsory Purchase and Compensation and Ryde on Rating. He has been shortlisted for Planning and Land Use Junior of the Year by the Legal 500 Bar Awards 2024 and is consistently ranked as a top-rated junior in Planning Magazine’s survey.
Hugh is ranked as a leading junior in the Legal 500 and described in Chambers and Partners as “a very talented junior who can more than hold his own in the company of KCs” (2017), “a standout junior” (2022) and “very strong at written advocacy and a very neat cross-examiner – the sort of person who gets his opponent to make unforced errors” (2020).
Recent examples of his work include:
- Acting for EDF Energy in promoting the Sizewell C nuclear power station
- Acting for Scottish Power Renewables in promoting the East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two offshore windfarms
- Acting for Heathrow Airport Limited in relation to its plans for a third runway
- Acting for Network Rail in promoting the expansion of Oxford station
- Appearing for London City Airport in securing planning permission for its airport expansion
- Appearing for the valuation officer in the Supreme Court in Telereal Trillium v Hewitt [2019] UKSC 23
Career
- Called: 2008 (Lincoln’s Inn)
Memberships
- Planning and Environmental Bar Association
- National Infrastructure Planning Association
- Compulsory Purchase Association
- Administrative Law Bar Association
Education
- Brasenose College, BA (Oxon) (1st class – ranked 5th in his year)
- GDL (Distinction)
- BVC (Outstanding)
During 2010-11 Hugh was appointed as Judicial Assistant to Lord Mance and Lord Kerr in the UK Supreme Court.
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Valuation and Rating
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 2Hugh Flanagan – Francis Taylor Building ‘He is really technically able, extremely hard-working, writes beautifully and really knows his stuff.’
London Bar > Planning
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Hugh Flanagan – Francis Taylor Building ‘Hugh is a talented and thorough barrister. A quietly powerful advocate who is a tough but polite opponent.’
Described as a ‘chambers of choice’ for planning, Francis Taylor Building prides itself on providing ‘expertise in a myriad of planning matters’. Their team of ‘exceptionally knowledgeable’ silks and juniors providing services that encompass planning applications, development proposals and complex environmental work. Morag Ellis KC led Charles Merrett, in R (BDW Trading and others) v Wrexham Council representing a multitude of clients in a key case considering whether local authorities have a discretion not to adopt a development plan after it is found acceptable at examination. Richard Honey KC has led various counsel from multiple sets in a multitude of cases this year, with a notable highlight being R (Parkes) v Dorset Council, Home Secretary & Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities concerning the geographical extent of Dorset Council’s development control powers in the interface between the land and the sea. Hereward Phillpot KC led Hugh Flanagan in representing East Anglia One North Ltd and East Anglia Two Ltd on in judicial reviews of development consent orders for windfarms off the Suffolk coast.