26 01 2026
George Mackenzie joins Landmark Chambers
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His practice involves advice, drafting and advocacy at all levels. He is particularly in demand as an inquiry or examination advocate for controversial and complex projects, including CPOs and NSIPs, particularly those involving disputes in technical fields. He regularly appears in the High Court, Lands Tribunal and Court of Appeal and is well-versed in procedural matters and litigation strategy.
His clients include developers, landowners, strategic land promoters, statutory undertakers, utility and industry majors, local planning authorities and central government. He has particular interest and expertise in renewable energy, digital infrastructure, leisure/hospitality, and large-scale housing and urban regeneration projects.
George is regarded by the directories as an “exceptional barrister” and a “brilliant problem solver”. He is ranked a “top planning junior” in the Planning Law Survey 2025, and has been appointed by the Attorney General to the “B” panel of London Counsel. He is ranked as a leading junior in planning, as well as valuation and rating, in both Chambers and Partners (2026) and The Legal 500 (2026).
George is a huge team player, something recognised by the directories which describe him as “wonderfully client focused” and praise his impressive “ability to work seamlessly with different personalities in the client team.”
George is both a detail fanatic and a strategic thinker, and is as comfortable with fine-grained disputes about models, numbers or law/policy as he is with joining the dots between the strategic big picture, procedural tactics and the forensic preparation of evidence. He is known for his approachability, clear and effective advocacy, strategic advice, commercial outlook, and ability to handle complex, technical and high-profile matters across both advisory and contentious work streams.
George also advises on the land assembly, CPO and compensation/valuation issues that sit alongside complex schemes. He regularly appears in high-value compensation references in the Lands Tribunal, and is a contributing editor of Ryde, the leading practitioners’ encyclopaedia on rating.
George lives in South London with his family. He is a keen surfer and travels extensively to France, Madeira, South Africa, Indonesia and Hawaii to surf. He is a sometime practitioner of Zen and, in the winter, a cold water swimmer.
George’s primary specialism is planning.
His substantial planning practice is both advisory and contentious and covers all fields of development and investment. He has also advised extensively in respect of enforcement matters, CIL disputes, s.187B injunctions, TPOs, s.106/s.178 agreements, advertisement consent, listed building consent and hazardous substances consent.
His practice encompasses both strategic land promotion as well as appeal and statutory challenge work. He has particularly deep experience in housing, retail, logistics/distribution and data centre development (and in particular promoting these schemes in controversial appeal contexts such as in Green/Grey Belt locations and in the absence of allocations). He has promoted local plans (notably, Oxford City Council) and local plan reviews (notably, Cotswold District Council).
George is a formidable inquiry advocate (this is what he enjoys most about his practice at the bar) and also regularly appears in the High Court and Court of Appeal, mostly unled. He is well-versed in technical procedural matters and brings a commercial approach to litigation strategy.
He works for private developers, business owners, landowners, land promoters, and local planning authorities, and is consistently ranked as a leading planning junior in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. He served on the Attorney-General’s ‘C’ Panel of Counsel for 5 years and was appointed to the ‘B’ Panel in 2025. He is recognised as a “leading planning junior” in the Planning Law Survey 2025. Directories describe George as an “exceptional barrister” and a “brilliant problem solver”.
George is experienced in dealing with all aspects of English planning policy and also has recent experience dealing with the Welsh planning policy framework, PPW. He particularly enjoys – and has a particular aptitude in – technical aspects of planning such as transport/highways, drainage, noise, ecology, flooding etc.
Recent examination, inquiry and hearing casework includes:
George’s planning judicial reviews/statutory challenges include:
A major element of George’s practice involves advising in relation to the making/promoting of CPOs as well as references to the Lands Tribunal for compensation following the exercise of statutory powers to acquire land or create rights by compulsion, whether in the context of CPOs, DCOs or TWAOs.
CPOs: George advises public authorities (including statutory undertakers and generation licence holders) seeking compulsory land assembly powers in relation to a wide range of matters (housing, regeneration, transport, etc.). Clients include RWE, Voltalia, Renewable Connections, Low Carbon, Network Rail, BP and Harbour Energy. George is a highly regarded inquiry advocate and is ideally suited to cases that call for the navigation of complex and controversial CPO inquiries. He also acts for those objecting to CPOs and is well placed to offer strategic advice about how to leverage objection to CPOs to secure tangible and commercial benefits from an acquiring authority.
Compensation: George has acted in numerous references, including some with a final value (i.e. determined or settled) of over £2.5million, and his practice encompasses compensation and valuation disputes arising out of a wide range of statutory activity such as implementation of TWAOs, DCOs, CPOs, Electricity Act 1989 wayleaves, ancillary rights under s.1 of the Mines (Working Facilities and Support) Act 1966, GPDO art.4 directions as well as contractual references. Clients welcome George’s thorough knowledge of the compensation code (including the niceties of s.14 LCA 1961) as well as his aptitude for working with company accounts, balance sheets and .xlsx models particularly in cases involving business extinguishment. He has acted in many references against HS2 and National Highways. He is ranked as a Band 2 leading junior for valuation and rating in the Legal 500 (2026) and the directories praise both his “charm” and his “very pragmatic” approach.
George has acted for clients in mediations, and is familiar with ADR procedure and advocacy. In the right case, ADR can present real opportunities to all parties in compensation proceedings, and George is well-placed to advise in this respect.
George’s experience includes:
Highways, commons and open space
George is familiar with the technical legal framework relating to highways, commons and open space including town and village green registration, deregistration and exchange. He was junior counsel in the leading modern case on the meaning of “curtilage” (Blackbushe Airport Ltd v SSEFRA and Hampshire CC) in the Court of Appeal and High Court (led by Douglas Edwards KC). He has acted in his own right in numerous village green inquiries, commons deregistration and exchange inquiries, and his advisory practice across all areas of highways, commons, greens and open space is extensive. George has a particularly keen interest in the somewhat technical and arcane law of commons and regularly advises commons registration authorities in relation to the various contested matters that crop up under the Commons Act 2006, particularly concerning land in Dartmoor, Cornwall and Wales.
The emphasis of George’s major infrastructure practice is on energy (including energy from waste) and utility projects (including utility diversions). He is thoroughly familiar with the legal and policy framework for DCOs, TWAOs, MLs and HROs and is well-placed to offer tactical and substantive advice, as well as advocacy at inquiries or examinations. George also has a sound working knowledge of many of the technical modelling tools and parameters involved in NSIP promotion, such as strategic highway models, mesoscopic demand models, area/junction micro-simulation and stochastic water resource (including drought) models.
George regularly provides advice and advocacy to bodies, investors and public authorities promoting (or objecting to) major infrastructure projects (whether NSIPs or not) and enjoys the process of working with the client and their experts to master the detail across numerous technical topic areas. The directories note George’s “ability to work seamlessly with different personalities in the client team”, an attribute that is particularly important in the context of large teams working on DCO applications.
His involvement in major infrastructure work includes:
George has extensive experience and expertise in rating and is a contributing editor of the leading practitioners’ encyclopaedia on rating, Ryde. He is ranked as a Band 2 leading junior for valuation and rating (Legal 500, 2026 and Chambers and Partners, 2026). He regularly acts (both led and unled) for billing authorities, large national companies, landowners and institutions as well multi-national entities (including Mazars, Ernest & Young Global) in relation to all aspects of contentious and non-contentious rating work including MCC/valuation appeals and occupation/mitigation/relief disputes. George particularly enjoys work that involves complex hereditaments such as energy transmission infrastructure and cement factories (both of which he has recently advised in relation to).
In addition to his substantial advisory practice, George’s rating case work includes:
Appointed to the Attorney General’s B Panel of Junior Counsel.
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