The London Borough of Merton has lost a Court of Appeal case over a charity’s liability for rates when two justices disagreed with the third, who had given the main judgment.

Two valuable pieces of Ealing Council's Martinware collection, including a two-sided 'barrister jug', have been returned to the London borough after having been stolen more than a decade ago.

The Housing Ombudsman has called on social landlords to do more to address residents’ individual circumstances in cladding complaints.

Local authorities could be in line for hundreds of millions of pounds in business rates following last week's landmark Supreme Court ruling, the solicitor who acted for the appellant councils has claimed.

Two North West councils have won a Supreme Court test case over whether they had reasonable grounds for claiming non-domestic (NDR) rates on certain empty properties from the respondent companies.

Judicial review proceedings have been filed against City & County of Swansea Council (CCSC) over the way in which it transferred ownership of a site to Mumbles Community Council (MCC) as part of a plan to build a skatepark on the land.

Social landlord Aster Communities has lost a Court of Appeal case brought over the dispensation of leaseholder consultation requirements in relation to service charges.

Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council has lost appeals over a planning inspector’s decision to give permission for a change of use to allow six Gypsy pitches on a Green Belt site.

There are grounds to suspect that, in a significant number of applications by local authorities for interim injunctions against “Persons Unknown” targeting unauthorised encampments on land, there were material and serious breaches of the procedural requirements and the procedures of the Court – and the Interim Applications Court of the Queen’s Bench Division (Court 37) in particular – have been…

The DVLA has handed law firm Gowling WLG a two-year contract worth more than £830,000 to advise on the expiry of a major PFI agreement.

The Treasury is to set up a £26m fund for councils as part of its drive to establish a national Local Land Charges Register.

Lichfield District Council is to pay a housing association compensation of almost £117,000 after errors in a land sale.

The Government has launched a consultation on the proposed design of a new tax on the largest residential property developers to help contribute to the cost of cladding remediation work.

A planning inspector’s decision over conversion of a building in Manchester contained a legal error and must be quashed, the High Court has found.

A planning inspector was right to reject an appeal over a building where a drawing error showed it lower than its intended height, the High Court has ruled.

A solicitor who previously worked at law firm Devonshires has returned to the firm as a partner to strengthen its growing Real Estate and Projects practice.

The Supreme Court has allowed Oxfordshire County Council's appeal in a case in which a family said the sale of school land worth £1.2m, which was gifted to the council by their late family member, was unlawful.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has said it will not progress the sale of farmland to Lex Greensill, the financier caught up in a central government lobbying row, “unless and until appropriate assurances are in place”.

A High Court judge has likened the result of a trial of a lease dispute involving Wigan Borough Council to the outcome of rugby league and soccer matches.

Leaseholders have won a Court of Appeal case against the City of London Corporation over whether certain repairs to their homes are chargeable to them.

Eleven NHS trusts have abandoned plans to petition the Court of Appeal as part of a dispute with councils over the business rates they have to pay on hospitals.

Calderdale Borough Council has won a High Court challenge to a decision by a planning inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to allow a large illuminated digital advertisement on a site in Elland.

A leading social landlord in the Midlands has appointed seven law firms to a £2.2m panel for property and development legal advice.

Eight people who committed repeated breaches of planning permission and court orders while trying to establish a site in Basildon have had their sentences confirmed after failing to convince the Court of Appeal that their punishments were too severe.

HM Land Registry has launched its first Digital Identity Standard, which provides a step-by-step list of requirements for conveyancers’ use of digital services to verify their client’s identity securely and conveniently online.