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Planning

Hereward Phillpot KC

Hereward Phillpot KC

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Francis Taylor Building

Francis Taylor Building is ‘an exceptional planning set’ with ‘excellent strength in depth, especially on infrastructure cases’. The team brings extensive experience in representing local authorities and developers in high-profile, complex matters. Morag Ellis KC represented the London Borough of Camden in an application for a judicial review concerning planning permission for the redevelopment of a site within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, where several listed buildings are located. Elsewhere in chambers, Hereward Phillpot KC and Isabella Tafur appeared before the Supreme Court in R (Spitalfields Historic Building Trust) v Tower Hamlets LBC, concerning the limits of local planning authorities’ powers to restrict voting by councillors on planning applications via standing orders. Alex Williams joined the group in August 2025.
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020 7353 8415
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[email protected]
Profile
ftbchambers.co.uk

Profile

Work Department

  • Planning
  • Environment
  • Infrastructure
  • Administrative & Public

Position

Hereward Phillpot KC took silk in 2015, and has rapidly become recognised as one of the foremost practitioners at the planning and environmental bar. Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500 both rank him as one of the highest rated planning silks overall and the Planning Law Survey also ranks him as the second highest rated silk for infrastructure work.

As a junior, the Chambers and Partners guide consistently rated Hereward as a 'Star Individual' junior in the field of planning, including him in the Chambers 100 UK Bar List of the top juniors, and naming him 'Junior Barrister of the Year' in environment and planning. Before taking silk, Hereward was a member of the Attorney General's 'A' Panel of Junior Counsel, having previously served on both the 'B' and 'C' Panels.

Hereward specialises in planning and environmental law, judicial review and statutory challenge. Regularly appearing in public inquiries, hearings into Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, and the higher Courts, he acts on behalf of developers, the Government, local planning authorities and third parties. He has particular expertise and experience in dealing with Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (including energy generation and transmission, waste water, carbon capture and storage, and transport schemes) and other major strategic developments such as airports, sustainable urban extensions, tall buildings, large housing and employment schemes, and in Administrative Court litigation.

Career

Called 1997, Gray’s Inn (Prince of Wales scholar)

Junior counsel to the Crown (A Panel)

QC 2015.

Memberships

  • Planning and Environment Bar Association
  • Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association
  • National Infrastructure Planning Association

Education

  • Queen Elizabeth I Grammar School, Alford
  • University of York (BA Hons History 1st, 1995)
  • City University (Dip Law, 1996)
  • King’s College, London (Dip EC Law, 1998)

Content supplied by Francis Taylor Building

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'Paul Coveney is lovely to work with and James Kemp and Harry Killick provide a good service.'
  • 'All of the clerking team are really helpful. James Kemp and Paul Coveney have excellent organisational and interpersonal skills.'
  • 'James Kemp is knowledgeable and approachable.'
  • 'Paul Coveney is the stand out clerk for planning.'
  • 'Francis Taylor Building is impressive across the board with real strength in depth.'
  • 'Excellent quality at all levels.'
  • 'A leading, 'go to' set for planning and infrastructure.'
  • 'The best set for the biggest, most complex infrastructure projects.'