New hires for firm’s housing and regeneration team

Catherine Kennedy

The housing and regeneration team at Forbes Solicitors is expanding its team across the North West as performance exceeds pre-pandemic levels.

Having recruited six new team members since March 2020 to take its total headcount to 48, the firm is now in the process of adding another 15 hires following a raft of 11 new client wins nationwide.

Total file numbers across the housing and regeneration team are up 22% versus August 2020, with new instructions being buoyed by a reputation for successfully meeting the challenges of COVID-19 to embrace new ways of working and changing compliance requirements.

Catherine Kennedy, a partner and head of the housing property team at Forbes Solicitors, said: “Remote working and social distancing during COVID-19 created new challenges for housing associations.

“This has made governance and compliance more complex, and this has been against a backdrop of new Government policies focused on enhancing quality standards and satisfaction for residents.

“This climate of change has increased the emphasis on good quality data in managing uncertainty and seen increased demand from existing and new clients for wider information law services.”

Beyond growing demand for data processing and protection expertise, housing and regeneration team growth is being driven by ongoing investment in affordable homes.

The team has been supporting a mix of public and private sector construction projects nationwide, advising on large-scale procurement contracts and creating delivery frameworks which are helping to meet a national housing shortage.

Catherine added: “The housing sector has responded strongly to the challenges of Coronavirus and continues to move forward. There’s a concerted effort to expand housing stock, whilst enhancing the quality of homes, standard of resident services and the communities in which people live.

“This is leading to greater demand for wider legal expertise such as employment, governance, procurement and data protection.

There’s little sign of this growth trend slowing, and we’re recruiting ahead of the curve.”

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