Latest news with #HughJames
Business News Wales
5 days ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
Hugh James Planning Team Marks 'Transformational' Year of Growth
Top 100 UK Law Firm Hugh James is marking a 'significant milestone' in the evolution of its planning practice. Since the appointment of Alex Madden as Partner and head of planning and environmental in July 2024, the planning team has grown in both size and scope. The firm says it now has new clients, complex projects, and key hires under its belt. 'It's been an action-packed 12 months,' Alex said. 'We've supported the firm's commercial property team on standout deals like Rockwool's new manufacturing base at Peddimore and Pobl's land acquisition at Cardiff's Plas Dŵr. We've also facilitated critical conversations around housing delivery in Wales, including a roundtable with Lee Waters MS focused on unlocking social housing.' The team now includes Senior Associate, Hannah Mannion, who specialises in energy and renewables, and soon to be assistant solicitor Ben Bowen who will qualify in September 2025. The team's growth over the past year has significantly boosted their capacity to support the firm's national housebuilder client base across both contentious and non-contentious work, it said. The introduction of mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for certain developments, updates to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – including the new 'grey belt' classification – and proposed legislative reforms via the Planning and Infrastructure Bill all signal an increasing demand for commercial planning advice, said the firm. Further changes are in the pipeline, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) publishing a working paper proposing reforms to site thresholds in the planning system to better support housing delivery across different types of sites and launching a consultation on proposed reforms to planning committees. Defra is also consulting on BNG implementation for NSIPs and minor, medium and brownfield developments. Alex believes these developments only underscore the importance of having a strong, agile legal team in place. 'Our expansion means we're not just meeting our clients' needs – we're anticipating them,' he said. 'We're now able to offer a cradle-to-grave service that ensures continuity, clarity and strategic input at every stage of a project. That's a win-win for clients new and old.' The team is advising on significant residential schemes in the South West. These include the landmark Selwood Garden Community comprising 1,700 homes, a major mixed-use development of around 400 units at Nailsea within the Green Belt, and a residential-led scheme at Trull delivering 125 new homes. Recent client wins include Wain Estates, Wain Homes, and Land Value Alliances. This strategic growth reflects Hugh James' wider vision for its planning and environmental team, and delivers on the ambitions set out when Alex was first appointed, the firm said. 'We knew that planning and environmental law was becoming a bigger priority for our clients,' said Alex. 'That's why we invested in building a market-leading team, and now we're delivering on that promise.'
Business News Wales
6 days ago
- General
- Business News Wales
Line-Up Unveiled for Global Empowerment and Inclusion Summit
The lineup of speakers has been announced for a summit set to be held in Geneva later this month. The Global Empowerment and Inclusion Summit, due to be held on June 26 at the United Nations Palais de Nations, is being curated by Bernie Davies, founder of Mastering Diversity CIC. It aims to bring together sport, diversity and innovation in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event will be supported by Mastering Diversity CIC's patrons Edward Watts MBE and Janey Howell, High Sheriff of South Glamorgan 2024-2025. The summit will open with remarks from Dr Donald Rukare, President of Commonwealth Sport and an international sports law expert and human rights advocate, and Paralympian Steve Brown. Helen Phillips MBE, Regional VP Commonwealth Games and President Commonwealth Games Wales, will also be at the event. Featured speakers and panellists include: Lady Anne Welsh, CEO of Painless Universal Duchess Nivin El Gamal of Lamberton, Founder of Duchess Prestige Mfikela Jean Samuel, COO TechCeFaCos Group, Tedx Speaker, Adviser Dr Alison Edgar MBE, Entrepreneur Educator & Board Member Scarlett Allen-Horton, Apprentice Finalist & Sir Alan Sugar's Business Partner Legal leaders from Hugh James, Thompsons Solicitors, Kenworthys Chambers, Browne Jacobson, and Legal News Wales Organisations such as Ogi, Latch Childrens' Charity, GAVO, C-Lash DEI and entrepreneurship voices including Akmal Hanuk, Cornelia Choe, Joy Macko, Jan Iverson and Melitta Campbell Cultural influencers and technologists from the USA, UK, and Europe The Mastering Diversity Youth Advisory Board will lead their own panel on Empowering Youth Through Creative Technologies. They will be supported by Kerrie Gemmill, CEO of Scouts Cymru. In the lead-up to the Geneva summit, Mastering Diversity CIC will host The Road to the UN – In Pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals on June 17 at Hugh James in Cardiff.
Business News Wales
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business News Wales
Women Mastering Change Marks Milestone Gathering at Parliament
The 3rd Annual Women Mastering Change – Master Change Your Way closed session has taken place in the House of Lords in London. Hosted by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE DL, Patron of Mastering Diversity CIC, and curated by Bernie Davies, Founder of Bernie Davies Global Ltd and Mastering Diversity CIC, the event brought together guests and speakers dedicated to empowering women navigating change, as well as the men who champion their journeys. Business leaders from organisations across Wales including NatWest, Hugh James, FinTech Wales, Deloitte, Browne Jacobson, Women in Change, Education Wales, Commonwealth Games Team Wales, Welsh Ambulance Services and many more joined to demonstrate their ongoing support for the movement and highlighting the importance of regional leadership in driving national change. Key speakers included Josianne Nduwiman, a representative for the First Lady of Burundi Angeline Ndayishimiye, Julia Reynolds (Partner at Leigh Day), Andrew Martin (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre & Mastering Diversity Board Member), Blessing Mutamba (NatWest), Gwen Morgan-Evans (Hugh James), and Kobena Amissah from the Mastering Diversity Youth Board. Each speaker brought perspectives on resilience, leadership, and allyship. A highlight of the event was the launch of a short film version of the 'Mastering Diversity' documentary, co-written and co-produced by Georgios Dimitropoulos. The full feature documentary is set to premiere on July 10th, 2025 at the NatWest South Wales Hub. Bernie Davies said: 'It was an honour to welcome such remarkable changemakers to our 3rd annual Women Mastering Change closed session. With the esteemed Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson as our host, the event became a powerful celebration of resilience, empowerment, and purposeful leadership. Together, we affirmed our shared commitment to inclusive progress and creating space for every voice to be heard. This spirit of collaboration and transformation will carry us forward to the Global Empowerment and Inclusion Summit at the United Nations in Geneva this June, where we'll continue amplifying voices and driving meaningful change on a global stage.' The event is one of the many events Mastering Diversity CIC is hosting throughout 2025 to tackle and discuss fundamental culture challenges required for fostering an inclusive Wales where diversity is not just celebrated but actively encouraged. Founder Bernie Davies and her Youth Advisory Panel are heading to the Palais des Nations, United Nations Headquarters in Geneva on the 26th June 2025 for the Global Empowerment and Inclusion Summit 2025 which will be bringing together global thought leaders, youth advocates, policymakers, and changemakers to spotlight Cultural Exchange, Youth Empowerment, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in sports and technology.
Wales Online
24-04-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
Full details of Cardiff Rugby's financial collapse emerge as those still owed money named
Full details of Cardiff Rugby's financial collapse emerge as those still owed money named Barclays Bank, HMRC, Hugh James solicitors and an Ebbw Vale-based magician are among the club's creditors Cardiff have been taken over by the WRU (Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd ) Cardiff Rugby owed well over 100 creditors an estimated total of £2.4m on the day it financially collapsed, it has emerged. Those creditors, which range from an energy company and bank to an Ebbw Vale-based magician and Merthyr Rugby Club, have little prospect for any returns, BusinessLive reports. HMRC, which is a secondary preferential creditor, is owed an estimated £1.4m relating to non VAT and PAYE payments. According to a proposals report from joint administrators with PwC, Rob Lewis and Ross Connock, unsecured creditors also include the company's previous legal partners in Hugh James who are owed £95,431 and whose managing partner, Alun Jones, was chair of Cardiff Rugby when the club fell into administration. Article continues below The corporate team of the Cardiff headquartered law firm had acted for the club on its takeover by Helford. Other unsecured creditors include Barclays Bank (£399,000), Octopus Energy, (£470,291), the United Rugby Championship (via Dublin-based Pro Rugby Championship LP) with nearly £190,000 relating to the funding of LED advertising, its landlord in Cardiff Athletic Club (£16,000), and Talbot Green-based Floodlighting and Electrical Services (£57,258). In total there are over 100 unsecured creditors with some of the smaller ones including Welsh magician Adam Reeves, who is owed £400 (linked to corporate entertainment at the Arms Park) and Merthyr Rugby Club, owed £1,600. 25% OFF DEAL NOW: Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. The former Cardiff owners, Helford Capital, also failed to fund a £2m trading shortfall despite being legally obliged to do so as the club's regional principal investors following their takeover from the late Peter Thomas in December, 2023. Just hours after the directors of Cardiff Rugby had put the business into administration, as it was no longer able to trade solvently without Helford's required funding, the assets and goodwill of the business were acquired by the WRU in a pre-pack deal with the joint administrators. As well as a debt liability for the artificial pitch at the Arms Park - funded by former board member Paul Bailey - the WRU's consideration came to £780,000. The due diligence of Helford before its takeover was undertaken by London-based advisory firm Thorium in the form of fit and proper person and financial tests. The outcome was literally a short paragraph saying they had cleared both tests. The report was passed back to the board of Cardiff Rugby from the WRU. The issue was not whether Mr Kempe and Mr Griffith didn't have the required financial resources, but whether they were willing to deploy their own money to make up losses, which benefactors at the four regions had agreed to under the current professional rugby agreement (PRA) with the WRU. While not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Griffith, financial services firm which he was chief executive of and a shareholder in, Optima Worldwide Group (OWG), was put into compulsory liquidation in 2021. The latest progress report - published last month - from joint liquidators at restructuring firm Interpath, shows creditors are owed more than £37m. Owners of Cardiff Rugby left Neal Griffith and Phil Kempe. Before going into administration Cardiff Rugby were repeatedly asked if they were aware of the liquidation of Mr Griffith's previous company before agreeing to the takeover and what additional due diligence they had undertaken as the sellers beyond relying on the fit and proper person and financial assessments that the WRU had arranged. Despite repeated assurances from Helford that they would meet the financial shortfall of the club, their required investment never materialised - although Mr Griffith provided a personal guarantee to a six-figure Barclays overdraft facility with the club, while Mr Kempe had agreed two non redeemable loans worth £250,000. There had been speculation that Helford were looking, through their contacts in the Middle East, to leverage significant investment into the club. What PwC is currently assessing is how it can recover the £2m debt from Helford for redistribution to creditors. The Jersey-based firm was established solely as a special purpose vehicle to acquire Cardiff Rugby. PwC would need to determine whether the £2m debt rests just with the company or its two directors in a personal capacity. If the former, and with no assets held by Helford, there will be no return for creditors. However, if they is any realisation then the first call on it from a creditor position will be HMRC as a government body. On the debt position of Helford the joint administrators say in their report: "Cardiff was due £2m from Helford under the terms of the RPI (regional principal investor) deed at the date of the administrators' appointment. We are currently reviewing the position regarding this outstanding balance and will update creditors further in due course.' With just hours between Cardiff Rugby being put into administration and the pre-pack deal which saw the WRU acquiring the assets of the club, the joint administrators didn't have time to seek any alternative offers. However, while not running a formal market process, and acting in the best interest of creditors, they have confirmed they would consider any new offers up to the expiry of a 13-week window before July 9th. Only if an improved counter deal is received and deemed in the best interest of creditors would the administrators then unwind the current ownership deal with the WRU. However, any new ownership deal technically would require the backing of the WRU as it is a secured creditor of the failed club, which relates to a £3m debt it had arranged and passed through to it. The WRU also passed through a further £6m of unsecured lending to the club - which now falls on the new Cardiff Rugby company it owns. The PwC report highlights the increasing concerns of the non-Helford board members of the club and the WRU, over the willingness of Mr Kempe and Mr Griffith to fund losses. It adds : "By early 2025, Cardiff Rugby Ltd (CRL) faced acute liquidity problems as Helford failed to deliver £2m in funding due under the RPI deed, citing delays in unrelated transactions. Despite repeated assurances, the funding did not materialise. "In late March and early April the non-Helford directors' and the WRU sought assurances and firm evidence from Helford relating to the timing of the RPI deed monies but, in the absence of these assurances being received, and after the overdraft facility (Barclays) was removed, the WRU took the decision not to continue advancing any PRA funding outside of the normal payment profile. 'Helford and CRL's non-Helford directors pursued options to secure external funding and/or obtain evidence that Helford would be in a position to provide immediate cash to the club. These options, however, were ultimately deemed by the non-Helford directors as not deliverable or reasonably demonstrable. 'In light of CRL's significant financial issues, the board of directors and the WRU had to take immediate steps to consider what action was required. "Both the CRL board of directors and the WRU wanted to ensure the preservation of the club operations but considered that, given all solvent funding options in the timeframe available had been exhausted, rescuing the club through an insolvency process was going to be the most viable and deliverable option. 'The board concluded that an administration process was the most appropriate course of action under the circumstances, with a pre-packaged sale of the club's business and assets to the WRU immediately post appointment. The intention of this solution was to offer a safe harbour for the club in the short term, allowing time for Cardiff Rugby to find a long term solution to secure the club's future.' Under the in principle agreed new PRA between the union and the four clubs (where Cardiff is now a subsidiary business of the WRU), the benefactor funding position in the case of default will be tightened with personal guarantees - although the new proposed PRA would see the funding for player squads from the union increasing incrementally and reaching £6.9m by 2029. The new deal would also see the WRU taking on the financing of around £3m per club in debt it has passed through to them. Chair of the WRU, Richard Collier-Keywood, said: "In the new PRA we want to see what I would call an onshore guarantee. We want to be able to make sure that the source of the money is fine for all sorts of international purposes and that we need to understand the ultimate beneficial ownership line that comes. The second thing we need to understand is the fact that we can enforce against what they have committed. 'Not all money rests in the UK, but we do need to learn from the current experience and improve it going forward as nobody wants to be in the same situation that the Cardiff board found itself in.' If no counter offer for Cardiff emerges by PwC's July deadline, the club will remain a subsidiary business - which around 170 staff and players of the failed entity transferred over into - of the WRU for at least the next year. Article continues below However, the WRU are hopeful that at some future point the business can return into private ownership.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Yahoo
‘Tragedy must never be repeated' say families of railway track workers killed by a train
The families of two men who 'lost their lives in an instant' after being hit by a train while working on the tracks in South Wales have said the tragedy must never be repeated. Network Rail was fined almost £4million at Swansea Crown Court on Friday after the deaths of the two track workers in July 2019. Gareth Delbridge, 64, and Michael 'Spike' Lewis, 58, were struck and killed by a train at Margam, near Port Talbot, after the company failed to put in place proper measures to protect workers, with no long-distance lookout in place. Network Rail was fined £3.75million and had to pay £175,000 in costs for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by Recorder Christian Jowett. The families of Mr Delbridge and Mr Lewis paid tribute to their lost loved ones, saying the 'tragedy must never be repeated' and blamed their employer for failing to protect them. In a statement issued through the law firm Hugh James, they said: 'On July 3 2019 Gareth Delbridge and Michael Lewis lost their lives in an instant, leaving an irreplaceable void in their families and among those who knew them. 'Their tragic and untimely deaths serve as a heartbreaking reminder of the risks faced by railway workers every day. 'The profound impact of their loss continues to be felt deeply by their loved ones, friends, and colleagues. 'Gareth and Mike were not just workers; they were devoted family members, cherished friends, and valued members of their community. 'Their absence is felt in every moment, and the pain of losing them remains immeasurable. 'What makes this tragedy even more devastating is that their deaths were preventable. The failure of both their employer and the regulator to implement and enforce proper safety protocols cost them their lives. 'This should never have happened and there needs to be accountability to ensure that no other family has to endure such unimaginable loss.' The family acknowledged that progress had been made in track worker safety since the incident in 2019, but urged the industry to 'continue prioritising and improving safety measures'. They said: 'No life should be put at unnecessary risk due to systemic failures or inadequate protections. 'Though no amount of change can bring Gareth and Mike back, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that their deaths lead to lasting improvements in railway safety. 'Their legacy must be one of change – change that protects workers, saves lives, and ensures that such a tragedy is never repeated.' The judge said issues surrounding safety policy had been known for some time ahead of the incident but Network Rail had failed to make improvements. In the absence of technological solutions, the only protection workers had was a lookout, which Mr Jowett described as the 'lowest level of protection'. Despite a bend in the track, no long-distance lookout had been put in place, and the workers were using noisy machinery. The judge said none of the workers were aware of the approaching train 'until it was too late'. In a statement on Friday, Nick Millington, route director at Network Rail Wales & Borders, said the deaths 'should never have happened on our railway'. He insisted the company had continued to make safety improvements since the incident, with new technology and planning tools having 'almost entirely eliminated the need to work on the railway when trains are running'. He said: 'Today's judgment reinforces why safety must always be our first consideration, and we will continue to do all we can to make our railways the safest they can be.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
