Author

Jill Briggs

Published
21st July 2025
Summarise Blog

We are delighted to have been appointed to the legal panel of Avant Homes, one of the UK’s leading housebuilders.

The interim appointment – effective immediately and running until a panel review, which is expected to take place later this year, enables us to provide legal support across a range of residential development matters.

This includes the acquisition of sites for new housing schemes, strategic land options and promotion agreements, sales to affordable housing providers, construction and planning advice.

Jill Briggs, residential development partner, said: “We’re delighted to have been appointed to Avant Homes’ legal panel. Having previously worked closely with the team – including on secondment – I’ve seen first-hand their ambition and drive.

“This is a great opportunity for our team to work alongside one of the UK’s most dynamic housebuilders and deliver strategic, commercially focused legal advice across their development pipeline.”

With more than 60 highly-experienced and wholly specialist residential development experts nationally, Shakespeare Martineau supports housebuilders at all stages of their residential and mixed-use developments.

As a full-service law firm, the team also draws on the deep expertise of its colleagues to help clients with any related matter, including planning issues, construction warranties and building agreements, property disputes, and corporate and tax structuring.

Jill said: “We’ve invested significantly in our people in recent years to build a strong group of talented lawyers across multiple disciplines, all perfectly placed to provide the best advice.

“The appointment adds to our already impressive list of residential development clients and supports our ongoing growth ambitions. We very much see this as the start of a long-term relationship with Avant Homes and are committed to delivering outstanding service as one of its key legal partners.”

Avant Homes, a top 20 UK housebuilder, builds affordable homes across the Midlands, Yorkshire, North West, North East, Wales and Scotland.

Rachel Cowper, general legal counsel at Avant Homes, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Shakespeare Martineau to our legal panel. The firm’s deep understanding of the residential development landscape and proven track record in delivering practical, solution-focused advice make them a strong addition to our legal team. We look forward to working with them during this interim period.”

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About the Author

Jill is a real estate lawyer with many years of experience working in the housebuilding sector where she has represented most of the top 20 national housebuilders, alongside large regional developers and promoters. She has extensive expertise in all aspects of the acquisitions process, both immediate and strategic land. She regularly deals with a variety of transaction types including conditional contracts, strategic options, promotion agreements, regeneration schemes, multi-party collaboration agreements and overages. She has particular expertise in acquiring heavy industrial sites for regeneration. Jill adopts a forward-thinking approach to real estate deals, readily providing guidance on heads of terms and…