Joshua Risso-Gill
UK Guide 2025
Band 3 : Planning
Band 3
About
Provided by Joshua Risso-Gill
Work Highlights
City of London: 120 Fenchurch St (Generali). 65 Fleet St (JM Land). 1 Millennium Bridge House (Beltane). 12/14 New Fetter Lane (GPE). Vine St (Urbanest City). 100 Bishopsgate.
Student: Urbanest (Lambeth, Battersea). Summix (Bath, York, Bournemouth).
Land Securities: Selly Oak, Birmingham’s key strategic mixed-use, out-of-center regeneration.
Taras Properties: Newcastle’s largest office-led, regeneration at Pilgrim Quarter.
London Oxford Airport: new helicopter facilities and flights.
Strategic Land: Chelmsford Garden Village, Essex (Threadneedle). Cambridgeshire: NW Bio (Sawston), British Steel (Chatteris).
Motcomb’s Mayfair estate: restoration of the Grade I listed former "In & Out" Club 90-95 Piccadilly for residential, restaurant and hotel uses. Carrington St and 100 Piccadilly residential schemes.
Co-living: Bristol’s first scheme (Summix). Exeter’s first scheme (Curlew). DTZi’s COLIV fund.
Practice Areas
Josh has more than 25 years’ experience specialising in planning, highway, compulsory purchase and listed building issues. Josh is ranked as a leading planning lawyer in the legal Directories, Practical Law Company's Which Lawyer and in the Planning Magazine Survey.
He gives strategic advice on appeals, inquiries and the judicial review of planning and development-related decisions on complex and high-profile schemes and writes legal opinions.
Josh acts for clients across the development sector, including funds, banks, investors, retailers, leisure operators and planning authorities. He has particular expertise on large scale, mixed use regeneration and infrastructure projects in urban centers. He has negotiated complex S106 planning, highways and infrastructure agreements for massive regeneration developments in Maidenhead, Merchant Square, Paddington, NOMA, Manchester, Pilgrim Quarter, Newcastle and Cambridgeshire.
Josh is currently advising on several high-profile office and mixed-use schemes, tall office developments in the City and student / co-living tower blocks across South London. He has particular experience in the student accommodation, hotel and leisure and alternative residential sectors eg BTR and pioneering co-living schemes in Bristol and Exeter. He is known for his expertise in listed building and heritage issues.
Josh’s clients include Land Securities, Google, M&G RE, Great Portland Estates, DTZi, Colombia Threadneedle, Motcomb Estates, Frogmore RE, Threadneedle, British Steel and BBC Pension Funds, The Portman Estate, Urbanest, Aberdeen Asset Management, Beltane, JM Land, Curlew, Blackrock, Hermes, Summix.
Professional Memberships
City of London Law Society Planning and Environmental Law Committee
Planning Surveyors Club
Trustee of the Fertile Roots Foundation fertileroots.org: sustainable development though permaculture
Education
Bristol University
LL.B (Hons)