Planning Lawyer
| Posting date: | 12 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £54,180 to £64,120 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 12 December 2025 |
| Location: | Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4LZ |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | National Highways |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 6819_1762947852 |
Summary
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
- A good understanding of 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.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme