Planning Lawyer

Lawyers In Local Government; Horsham; Hybrid; GBP 54,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A national legal organization in the UK is seeking a qualified Lawyer to join their team. In this hybrid position, you will provide crucial legal advice on planning, highways, and environmental law. The role entails managing complex cases and advising senior management, ensuring compliance and risk management. With a competitive salary range between £54,180 and £64,120, this position also offers various benefits including flexible working options and professional development opportunities.

Benefits

Contributory pension scheme

26 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays

Performance-related bonus

Flexible working hours

Health and wellbeing support

Qualifications

• Experience in planning, highways, and environmental law required.
• Understanding of infrastructure planning law essential.
• Ability to manage own caseload and work under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice on a range of planning and environmental issues.
• Support Senior Lawyers on complex legal matters.
• Manage stakeholder expectations while providing legal services.

Skills

Planning law

Highways law

Environmental law

Stakeholder influence

Pressure management

Education

Qualified Lawyer

Job description

Locations: Bridge House Brunel House; Apply Before: 19/01/2026, 23:59; Job Schedule: Full time; Salary £54,180 - £64,120; Working Hours: 37; Part Time/Job Share Considered: Yes.

About The Job

Join National Highways as a Lawyer and make a real impact!

You’ll provide clear, pragmatic legal advice across planning, highways, and environmental law, helping shape decisions that keep our roads safe and efficient. Working alongside experienced Lawyers and Senior Lawyers, you’ll support complex cases and draw on specialist expertise to protect the best interests of National Highways every step of the way.

This is a hybrid position (40% office based) and can be based from either our Guildford, Bristol or Birmingham offices and will include some travel to other offices to attend meetings.

• Provide advice on development consent orders, transport and work act orders, local development orders, compulsory purchase, highways law, permitted development, spatial planning issues, town and country planning matters, including planning inquiries and appeals, plus environmental law all to protect the interests of National Highways.
• Act as the legal expert for National Highways, resolving any queries, providing clear, concise advice and direction and providing support to Senior Lawyers on complex matters where required.
• Advise on reputational risk, ensuring the horizon is scanned, pulling together conflicting priorities and manage expectations of a range of stakeholders to provide the best possible legal service to National Highways.
• Take responsibility for ensuring that guidance, legislation and policy are followed, providing high quality, pragmatic advice.
• Advise as a public sector lawyer on planning, highways and environmental law, reputational risk and legal risk.

About You

• A Qualified Lawyer with experience of planning, highways and environmental law
• An understanding and experience of infrastructure planning law
• A good understanding of UK Public Law
• Able to manage own caseload and work under pressure and to deadlines
• Ability to influence stakeholders at a range of levels

About Us

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England’s motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.

Legal Services encompasses both the National Highways legal team and the company secretariat. Our aim is to provide the organisation with an effective legal service and support the Board, Chief Executive, and its committees on a wide range of issues. We offer strategic legal advice on commercial, planning, operational, highways, employment, regulatory, and property matters, ensuring legal compliance and minimising exposure to risk.

External candidates will be offered a starting salary at the lower end of the pay scale, while current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy.

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Why you should join us

At National Highways we believe in a connected country. We are passionate about creating a culture where colleagues feel connected, included and enjoy greater wellbeing to achieve this. We’re proud that as an organisation we are continually striving to do better and actively encourage and support our colleagues to do the same with their careers.

So, if you put safety first, take ownership of your work, show passion for what you do, work effectively in a team, and demonstrate integrity in how you do it – then you’ll be a great fit for our organisation.

A connected and sustainable working approach has been adopted across National Highways. For some roles, this means being able to work in a hybrid way spending up to 60% of time working from a remote location such as home.

We offer many different ways to work flexibly and we’re open to discuss part-time working, job shares, and flexible start and finish times.

Please wait until the interview stage before asking us about flexibility, and we will explore what is possible.

Our benefits package

• Our total reward package includes basic salary, the potential for a performance related bonus
• Contributory pension scheme with employer contribution of up to 10%
• Annual Leave starting at 26 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising by 1 day each year up to 31 days (plus Bank Holidays)
• Flexible hours and an approach driven by connected and sustainable working which includes hybrid working
• Life assurance of 4 times annual salary
• Health and wellbeing support, including an Employee Assistance Programme, available 24/7 365 days and network of mental health first aiders. Plus access to a wellbeing app to enhance your self-care 24/7, Occupational health service and flu vaccines
• A cycle to work scheme for the purchase of a bicycle and equipment for healthy, low carbon travel
• Significant investment in your career development, through learning and development, talent management, coaching, mentoring and on job experience

And we are

• Family friendly with enhanced maternity leave and pay, paternity leave (15 days), shared parental leave, adoption leave. Plus access to financial support for holiday play schemes and paid special leave (up to 5 days pa), eg for caring responsibilities
• Money friendly with access to a discounts platform including over 3000 discounts for supermarkets, eating out, leisure, holidays. Alongside a financial wellbeing programme
• Community friendly – offering paid leave to volunteer, 3 days basic/year

If You Are Successful, It Is Key To Know All Offers Of Employment Are Subject To Satisfactory Completion Of Our Pre‑employment Checks Which Include

• Right to work check
• 3 year employment history references
• DBS criminal record check
• Social media and adverse journalism check
• Driving licence check (if applicable)
• Fit to work questionnaire (for all), followed by a medical check (if applicable)
• Qualifications and/or professional membership check (if applicable)

And finally

We reserve the right to close before the advertisement expires.