THE public sector property team at law firm Ward Hadaway has completed transactions with a development value of more than £800m over the past year.

Over the past year, the ninestrong team from the Newcastlebased firm has worked on schemes ranging from hospitals, health centres and community facilities to schools and urban regeneration schemes from Tyneside and County Durham through Yorkshire and the Midlands and down to London.

Simon Priestley, partner and head of the team at Ward Hadaway, said: “This has been an incredibly busy year for us. Our team has been working on a wide range of projects, all of which are set to make a real difference to the lives of thousands of people across the country.

“Our reputation for completing complex and often pioneering public sector property projects on budget, and often within very tight timescales, is clearly spreading nationwide.

“It has been really rewarding to work with some of the finest people in the public sector on these schemes over the past year, which has, of course, considerably strengthened and broadened our own expertise.”

In the healthcare sector, the team provided the support that helped secure the site and development agreement to underpin the £500m Outline Business Case for the Momentum scheme for a new hospital on Teesside.

The team also completed the St Luke’s Hospital scheme in Middlesbrough, a mental health facility next to the current hospital in Marton Road.

Elsewhere in the sector, the team advised on a new mental health hospital in Durham City, a primary care centre in Stanley, County Durham, and the transfer of services and staff from Hartlepool Primary Care Trust and Stockton Teaching Primary Care Trust to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

In the education sector, the team has advised on a large number of school building projects under the umbrella of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme.

The team’s work with Nottingham City Council and the authority’s partners will help to build five schools in the city with another school substantially refurbished.

Mr Priestley said: “All of these projects represent fantastic achievements by the team and going forward, the outlook is very positive.

“We have a very full programme of work coming up in the next 12 months.”

Forthcoming projects the team will be working on include LIFT healthcare schemes in Newcastle and Sheffield and a major regeneration scheme on Tyneside.