Jenny’s practice is focused on planning and environmental law and non-domestic rating (local government tax). She appears regularly in the High Court and Court of Appeal in judicial review and statutory review claims including, most recently, those related to adequate consultation, legitimate expectation, heritage, Habitats Regulations, EIA, SEA, air quality, s.106 obligations and conditions, the GPDO, interpretation of policy and adequacy of reasons.
On the non-domestic rating side, her practice includes cases in the Valuation Tribunal, Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Higher Courts, including in the recent landmark Divisional Court cases concerning empty rates relief (Makro, Kenya Aid, Digital Pipeline and Pall Mall).
Jenny was formerly a solicitor at Stephenson Harwood and was called to the Bar in 2000. She practised at 2 Mitre Court Buildings and No 5 Chambers before moving to Landmark in 2017.
More information on Jenny's particular areas of specialism, including recent cases of note, can be found here:
Most Recent Recommendations
“Diligent, approachable, confident and assertive”
Legal 500 2017 (Public Law)
“Her knowledge of judicial review is impressive”
Legal 500 2016 (Public Law)
Planning and Environmental
Ranked in the Directories consistently as a leading junior, the “excellent” Jenny Wigley (Legal 500 2013) is “thorough in her preparation and forceful in her advocacy” (Legal 500 2014) and “presents a clear and cogent case” (Legal 500 2015). “Her knowledge of judicial review is impressive” (Legal 500 2016).
She regularly appears in the Senior Courts in judicial review claims and statutory challenges (recent reported cases of note listed in the cases tab). She also appears in planning inquiries, examinations and hearings relating to all aspects of development and enforcement for developers, local authorities and other interested persons. She has been successful in representing a Parish Council at a three week Inquiry as the sole party opposing an appeal for 800 houses in Essex on primarily transport grounds. She has recently appeared for a local planning authority in an inquiry successfully resisting the conversion of a listed public house to residential use, a case involving complex viability and heritage issues. She also acted for a developer in gaining planning permission for 150 houses on appeal in one of the first post-NPPF cases in which planning permission was granted notwithstanding the presence of a five year housing land supply and the site’s location outside the settlement boundary.
In addition to the reported cases in which she has appeared in the High Court and Court of Appeal (see cases tab), Jenny has succeeded in achieving quashing orders by consent and other favourable settlements for both claimants and developers in many more judicial review and statutory review cases. She has appeared many times for claimants, local authorities and developers in judicial review and statutory review claims including, in particular, those related to adequate consultation, legitimate expectation, heritage, Habitats Regulations, EIA, SEA, air quality, s.106 obligations and conditions, interpretation of policy and adequacy of reasons. She has also appeared in a number of cases concerning the interpretation of the NPPF. Whilst her current caseload has a strong planning focus, she is widening that to other areas of judicial review and High Court challenge.
Jenny graduated in law from Cambridge University. She was called to the Bar in 2000 by the Middle Temple, having worked for five years in a solicitors’ firm in the City.
Jenny has written a number of articles on planning, rating and the council tax in both the legal and property trade press. She provides oral representation and advice, both written and in conference, on all aspects of judicial review, planning, rating and the council tax, compulsory purchase, highways and local government.
Recommendations
“Diligent, approachable, confident and assertive”
Legal 500 2017 (Public Law)
“Her knowledge of judicial review is impressive”
Legal 500 2016 (Public Law)
“Presents a clear and cogent case”
Legal 500 2015 (Public Law)
“Thorough in her preparation and forceful in her advocacy”
Legal 500 2014
The ‘excellent’ Jenny Wigley is recommended for planning matters
Legal 500 2013
In the last year Jenny Wigley has been involved in a number of judicial review and statutory claims. One recent example of her work was a three-week planning inquiry, where she acted against Ian Dove QC, relating to a site on the edge of Leicester called Glenfield Park. This area had been earmarked for a mixed employment and housing scheme.
Chambers UK 2013
Jenny Wigley is proficient in all aspects of planning law, including highways and CPOs along with enforcement, inquiries and local and statutory reviews in the High Court. Currently, she is continuing to challenge the Secretary of State's dismissal of an appeal for 1,100 houses on a derelict sugar beet factory site in Ipswich.
Chambers UK 2010
"Jenny Wigley has impressed with a series of planning judicial review applications and appeals"
Legal 500 2009
“Increasingly recognised as a barrister making a huge impact on the market”
Chambers UK 2009
Non-Domestic Rating
Jenny Wigley has a strong practice in the field of non-domestic rating (local government tax). She regularly appears both for rate payers and local authorities in the Valuation Tribunal, Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Higher Courts, including in the recent landmark Divisional Court cases concerning empty rates (Makro, Kenya Aid, Digital Pipeline and Pall Mall - see cases below). One of her current cases is for a football club and concerns the important issue of whether relegation from the Premier League can constitute a ‘material change of circumstances’ for rating purposes. Her cases of note in this field include (more details in cases tab):
- Student Union Lettings Ltd v. Leicester City Council [2018] RA 175
- City of York Council v. Sykes (VO) [2017] UKUT 230 (LC)
- South Kesteven DC v. Digital Pipeline Ltd [2016] EWHC 101 (Admin)
- Sleekmade Ltd v. Sheffield City Council [2015] EWHC (Admin) (17 November 2015)
- Pall Mall Investments (London) Ltd v. Gloucester City Council [2014] EWHC 2247 (Admin), [2014] PTSR 1184, [2014] RA 395:
- Lidl (Uk) GmbH v. Ryder (VO) [2014] RA 23
- Kenya Aid Programme v. Sheffield City Council [2013] EWHC 54 (Admin) Div, [2014] QB
- Makro Properties Limited v. Nuneaton & Bedworth BC [2012] EWHC 2250 (Admin)
- Webster v. Yorkshire Water Services Ltd [2009] RA 317
- Thames Water plc v. Peter Handcock (VO), Lands Tribunal, 16 September 2008
- Baker (VO) v. Citibank NA [2007] RA 93Jenny co-edits the main rating text book, Ryde on Rating and the Council Tax and she edits the rating chapter in Atkins Court Forms and the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.
Jenny graduated in law from Cambridge University. She was called to the Bar in 2000 by the Middle Temple, having worked for five years in a solicitors’ firm in the City.
During her time as a solicitor, Jenny practised in the commercial and property litigation department of city firm, Stephenson Harwood, where she also had conduct of the firm’s rating practice. During that time she worked on the law changing case of Benjamin (VO) v. Anston Properties (which led to the Government introducing the Rating (Valuation) Act 1999) and the case of Coventry & Solihull Waste Disposal Co v. Russell (VO) ([1999] 1 WLR 2093) in the House of Lords.
Recommendations
“Her knowledge of judicial review is impressive”
Legal 500 2016 (Public Law)
“Presents a clear and cogent case”
Legal 500 2015 (Public Law)
“Thorough in her preparation and forceful in her advocacy”
Legal 500 2014
The ‘excellent’ Jenny Wigley is recommended for planning matters
Legal 500 2013
In the last year Jenny Wigley has been involved in a number of judicial review and statutory claims. One recent example of her work was a three-week planning inquiry, where she acted against Ian Dove QC, relating to a site on the edge of Leicester called Glenfield Park. This area had been earmarked for a mixed employment and housing scheme.
Chambers UK 2013
Jenny Wigley is proficient in all aspects of planning law, including highways and CPOs along with enforcement, inquiries and local and statutory reviews in the High Court. Currently, she is continuing to challenge the Secretary of State's dismissal of an appeal for 1,100 houses on a derelict sugar beet factory site in Ipswich.
Chambers UK 2010
"Jenny Wigley has impressed with a series of planning judicial review applications and appeals"
Legal 500 2009