DWD

DWD provides services within three main areas – planning consultancy; valuation-based property advice; and business rates mitigation.

The business’s planning team now numbers more than 45 professional planning consultants and is involved in advising upon, consenting and delivering a wide range of projects across the UK under a number of different consenting regimes, including the Planning Act 2008, the Electricity Act 1989 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Over the past 15 years, DWD has established itself as a market leader in the infrastructure planning sector and has an enviable track record of securing planning permissions and development consent orders (DCO) for major energy and infrastructure projects. To date, the business has advised on over 25 DCO applications. The planning team also has a strong focus on large-scale residential and mixed-use development and the industrial, storage and logistics sectors.

DWD’s chartered surveyors provide a range of valuation-based property advice services including acquisition and disposal; development appraisals and viability reports; compulsory purchase and compensation advice; litigation support through expert witness evidence; lease renewals; rent reviews; Section 18 diminution in value advice for dilapidations claims; valuation reports; and specialist advice in relation to ransom strips, tunnels and bridges and riparian rights.

DWD also provides a business rates mitigation service, with a team of expert business rates practitioners working with clients to reduce their business rates liability and remove the burden of business rates administration. This involves challenging the rateable values set by the Valuation Office with the aim of reducing them and managing the rates payment processes to improve clients’ profitability. The business rates team works across a range of property types but has particular expertise in retail, office and energy infrastructure rating work.

Professional staff at DWD are accredited members of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) or the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV), dependent on the area they work within. These organisations are responsible for shaping policy within the planning, surveying and business rates professions and maintaining high professional standards. Those involved in infrastructure planning are also members of the National Infrastructure Planning Association (NIPA), an industry body established to shape policy within the infrastructure sector and develop and promote best practice.

DWD has a broad client base and benefits from a number of long-standing client relationships, which results in significant repeat business. The business prides itself on providing high quality advice and attention to detail and is working on a wide range of high profile projects across the UK.