DWF’s affordable housing practice is a go-to name for high-profile national and regional mandates, acting for a client roster of registered providers, local authorities and public sector bodies. The group is highly regarded for its public sector expertise and is active in handling development agreements, grant funding issues, section 106 agreements, asset management work and contentious mandates. Lee Pickett is joint head of the firm’s national public sector real estate team, and newly promoted director Kelly Pearson heads up the national affordable housing group. Associates Marie Louise O’Hanrahan and Julie Polkey also contribute to the practice.

With ‘excellent knowledge of the sector and the unique issues faced in social housing’, Ward Hadaway LLP’s full-service social housing team acts for registered providers on all stages of projects from planning issues and developments to regulatory work and housing litigation. Julia Thomson heads up the group and is notably adept at handling site acquisitions and security work, Kamran Hyder handles planning mandates, and John Murray recently moved from the firm’s Leeds office to establish a housing management team in the North East. The group also draws on the firm’s national network of offices for additional expertise.

Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP‘s ‘approachable and helpful’ multi-disciplinary practice counts housing associations, councils, charities, registered providers and other affordable housing providers on its client roster, which it assists with the full range of contentious and non-contentious work. On the non-contentious front, the group advises on transactional work, contractual issues, developments, finance work and governance mandates, while its contentious matters span disrepair claims, possession claims and anti-social behaviour injunctions. Nigel Emmerson leads the housing group, while national real estate sector leader John Ralph also contributes. The team also works closely with practitioners in other offices.