Why the founder of a planning law firm who spent 20 years leading the business alone recruited two equity partners

Walton, who spent 15 years in the legal department at Leeds City Council before he was headhunted by the private sector, founded his niche planning law firm in 2004 with three or four employees.

Twenty years later, Walton, who declines to share his age, has remodelled the business, taking on two more equity partners – Alec Cropper and James Cook.

“It came to a stage where I wanted to grow, share the responsibilities of the business and make sure there’s some sort of succession in there,” he says on a video call with Cropper and Cook from the firm’s city centre office, on Queen Street in Leeds.

"I’ve no desire to retire any time soon,” he adds quickly. “We’re looking forward to growing the business.”

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Walton & Co, which employs seven people and has a turnover of about £1m, advises developers, councils, individual property owners and activists on a range of projects, including planning, compulsory purchase, highways and environmental law. However, it primarily works for developers and housebuilders.

The firm advised CEG on the successful obtaining of planning permission for a high-profile residential development following a public inquiry. It also advised Wren Kitchens on obtaining and implementing planning permission for a new factory in Barton-upon-Humber.

"We’re a very small firm in business terms but as a planning law firm we’re one of the biggest in the country,” says Walton. “I don’t know anyone else who does what we do.”

Since April, the company has taken on 30 new clients and 50 new jobs and is looking to recruit one or more employees on the back of that.

One of the areas identified for future growth is renewable energy – specifically solar farm proposals and wind farms.

Labour’s decision to ditch the Conservatives’ onshore windfarm ban is expected to create new opportunities for Walton & Co.

“There will be people who want to build the windfarm and the people who think it’s in the wrong place,” says Walton. “We do see that as a particular growth area.”

Cropper has over 15 years’ of legal experience, having previously worked at a number of Leeds-based firms including Walker Morris and DWF. He joined Walton & Co in 2019, and specialises in planning appeals, application advice, High Court proceedings, and the negotiation of planning agreements.

Cook, who previously worked at Walton & Co from 2007 to 2019, returns to the firm from Leeds-based Blacks Solicitors where he held the position of head of planning after establishing a new planning law team there in 2019.

“We all get on extremely well,” says Walton. “Having a good sense of humour and a large laughter quota in the office is a basic requirement for me and it’s very natural between the three of us.”

Planning has become increasingly complicated over the last 20 years, something which Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new government has pledged to address in its forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

“There are a lot of competing interests in the planning system,” says Walton.

Cropper adds: "Planning has become a lot more complicated but I think that’s because as a society we recognise the importance of planning in terms of achieving the outcomes we want to achieve.

“That could be protecting our historic environments whilst also providing homes and infrastructure that people need. Planning’s all about balance and there are a lot of different considerations that feed into that.”

Job creation in local authority planning departments is something the trio hope to see in the new bill.

"Council budgets have been squeezed and the headcount within some local planning departments around Yorkshire has decreased massively,” says Cropper. “Staff turnover has become higher, which makes it difficult to establish lasting relationships with planning officers.

"Some of the projects we work on, like Kirkstall Forge, go back 15 years. These are big sites that take a long time to come through the system and deliver fully and you want to be developing these personal relationships with officers as you go through because it tends to make it a lot easier.”

“The whole thing is primarily creaking because of lack of resources,” adds Walton.

Looking ahead, there are plenty of opportunities for business growth, according to Cook. “It’s an exciting time for planning so there are lots of opportunities out there,” he says.

“Having the three of us gives the firm greater depth,” says Walton. “You’ve got three partners with expertise and having partner-level involvement is what people like about us. It’s a very personal business with the problems we’re dealing with.”

"Because a lot of those matters can go on for a long time, you have to have a good personal relationship with your clients,” says Cook. "Whatever we do moving forward with the business, we have to maintain that ethos and it’s important that it’s reflected from a recruitment point of view as well.”

When it comes to sharing the leadership of the firm, Walton says he has adapted well to another two voices at the top. “I’ve always found it easy to delegate and work with people,” he says. “I can be argumentative and opinionated but I’m not very bossy and we all get on incredibly well.”