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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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In this issue: Property management Insurance Easements, rights and covenants Property development Statutory compliance Residential property Transferring property Property taxes Property in Scotland Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q& A Property management No recovery of landlord’s legal costs via service charge In Triplark Ltd v Martin Howard [2025] UKUT 232 ( LC), the Upper Tribunal ( Lands Chamber) confirmed that a landlord could not pass legal costs through a service charge where the lease wording addressed only building management. The Tribunal stressed that service charge clauses must state, in clear and unequivocal terms, that legal costs are recoverable. The landlord had attempted to recoup £55,492.23—covering general legal advice, litigation expenditure, and costs from actions against third parties—under a provision allowing recovery of ‘proper fees salaries charges and...
Background The Bill sits within the government’s wider drive to devolve power and bolster decision-making at local and regional levels. This programme was trailed in the King’s Speech and taken forward through the English Devolution White Paper of December 2024, which proposed handing substantial planning and infrastructure responsibilities to newly designated strategic authorities. The White Paper pledged to reinstate strategic planning across England, after years without a cross-boundary framework beyond London. It further set out intentions to finish the devolution map, establish a new layer of ‘strategic authorities’, and provide them with more coherent powers for planning, infrastructure, housing and growth. Key planning provisions Strategic authorities and tiers of devolution The Bill introduces a new class of Strategic Authority, spanning Combined authorities, Combined County authorities ( CCAs), the Greater London Authority, and specified unitary authorities where designated. These are arranged into three tiers: ...
Representatives of Leaseholder Action have confirmed the group has issued pre-action letters to four of the country’s largest freeholders, as a precursor to an anticipated group claim seeking compensation for allegedly unlawful commissions levied on insurance premiums. The group says some of these charges account for as much as 60% of the premiums paid by leaseholders, a level it describes as excessive. Letters have been sent to freehold landlords E& J Estates, Long Harbour, Consensus Business Group and Ground Rents Income Fund Plc. Leaseholder Action is advised by boutique practice Velitor Law, with the litigation financed by Balance Legal Capital, the group added. According to the group, the prospective claim could impact up to 900,000 homeowners, most commonly those owning flats in multi-occupancy buildings. It also expects to dispatch similar letters to a second tranche of freehold landlords later in 2025 and...
On 14 July 2025, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ( RICS) launched consultation on the second edition of its standard for secured lending valuations of multi-storey, multi-occupancy residential properties with cladding. The refreshed standard is for RICS members undertaking valuations for secured lending......
Cooper v Ludgate House Ltd [2025] EWHC 1724 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment is rich in detail and offers much of relevance for practitioners. Key takeaways include: The Waldram approach to evaluating loss of light remains the benchmark for rights of light surveyors. However, additional techniques already common in the planning sphere to inform design may increasingly be used alongside Waldram to aid the court, particularly where issues are finely balanced. Any such techniques must deliver concrete, quantifiable outcomes, rather than depend on subjective, impressionistic readings of graphical outputs. Where a claimant pursues an injunction compelling demolition or alteration of a building said to interfere with rights to light and that building is tenanted, careful thought should be given to joining those tenants who are likely to be affected. Although this may...
Mitterhuber v Hernandez and another [2025] UKUT 194 ( LC) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision confirms a practical, evidence‑based approach to deciding whether an occupier treats a property as their sole or principal home, and recognises that this point may not be addressed head‑on, particularly where the occupier is neither the applicant nor a witness. While there will be occasions when the FTT must draw inferences, the appeal shows that there was sufficient material to satisfy the requirements of section 254(2) of the Housing Act 2004, with particular weight on subsection (c): the premises comprise one or more units of living accommodation that are not a self‑contained flat or flats the living accommodation is used by persons who do not constitute a single household (see HA 2004, s 258) the living...
Cotham School v Bristol City Council and another [2025] EWHC 1382 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling warrants close attention from village green practitioners, including those serving as independent inspectors appointed by commons registration authorities. In particular: as CA 2006, s 1 has not been commenced for the Bristol area, CRA 1965, s 14 remains available where land is entered as a village green (at paras [40]–[42]) the judge had earlier refused the City Council’s bid to participate separately in its landowning capacity as well as as the commons registration authority ( CRA), and comments on that and on whether it is proper for a CRA to do other than maintain neutrality in such matters (at paras [6]–[10]) the judge explains with clarity the method for determining such a claim, stressing the frailty of memory and the...
Abbotsford Property Group Ltd and another v Revenue Scotland [2025] FTSTC 9 The dispute arose from 2017 property transactions in which both appellants claimed group relief in their LBTT returns. That entitlement fell away on 31 May 2017 when each appellant’s share capital was subdivided and further shares were issued to persons other than the parent holding company, thereby reducing its interest below the qualifying threshold for group relief. Saffery Champness LLP (the firm’s name at the time), acting as the appellants’ tax adviser (the Tax Adviser), made a voluntary disclosure in February 2022, admitting that the original returns were inaccurate. It was accepted between the parties that Revenue Scotland’s power to issue an assessment to LBTT existed only by virtue of sections 98(1) and 102 of the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers......
Bunyan ( Valuation Officer) v Fridays Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 666 What are the practical implications of this case? Although Fridays succeeded in the Court of Appeal, the court rejected their broader submission. To qualify as an ‘agricultural building’ (and thereby benefit from the exemption) a structure must satisfy an occupation test—that it is occupied with agricultural land—and a use test—that it is employed solely for agricultural operations on that land or on other agricultural land. The Upper Tribunal concluded that the 2003 revision to the definition displaced earlier authority which had required the building and land to comprise a single agricultural unit. It held instead that the correct approach was that the building and land needed to be held as part of the same enterprise and be geographically proximate, if not adjoining. The Court of Appeal found that analysis to be mistaken and...
In this issue: Statutory compliance Property in Wales Property development Environment, energy and buildings Property management Residential property Transferring property Easements, right and covenants Property taxes Property in Scotland Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q& As Statutory compliance Court of Appeal upholds retrospective leaseholder protections In Adriatic Land 5 Ltd v Long Leaseholders at Hippersley Point ( Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, intervening) [2025] EWCA Civ 856, the Court of Appeal, by a majority, ruled that paragraph 9 of Schedule 8 to the Building Safety Act 2022 ( BSA 2022) applies retrospectively to stop the recovery of service charges covering legal and professional fees tied to safety defect liabilities under qualifying leases where those liabilities arose before 28 June 2022 (the date the...
In this issue: Residential property Property development Transferring property Easements, rights and covenants Environment, energy and buildings Property in Wales Property taxes Lex Talk®Property: a Lexis®Nexis community Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q& As Residential property Supreme Court tweaks Etridge English land law, from time to time, yields truly landmark rulings from the apex court. Looking ahead, Waller- Edwards v One Savings Bank Plc [2025] UKSC 22 could very well stand among them. Drawing on the distinguished line of three celebrated House of Lords authorities— Barclays Bank v O’ Brien, CIBC Mortgages v Pitt, and Royal Bank of Scotland v Etridge—it deftly deploys settled doctrine in a fresh manner. See the News Analysis by Marc Beaumont of Windsor Chambers for further detail: The Supreme Court tweaks Etridge ( Waller Edwards v One Savings Bank plc). Social housing programme with new regulatory framework The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG), under Deputy Prime...
In this issue: Property management Investigating title Environment, energy and buildings Residential property Statutory compliance Property in Scotland Property in Wales Transferring property Property insolvency Property taxes Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q& As Property management Second edition of RICS service charge standard The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors ( RICS) has released the second edition of its professional standard on service charges in commercial property. Compulsory for all RICS-accredited practitioners and aimed at UK property managers and occupiers, it seeks to lift standards and foster greater transparency, fairness and consistency in service charge management and administration. The revision addresses key challenges, including issuing budgets and year-end certificates promptly, works to reduce causes of disputes between landlords and tenants, and offers clearer guidance on...
Candy v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2025] UKFTT 416 ( TC) What are the practical implications of this case? The clearest consequence of the ruling concerns taxpayers seeking to recover overpaid SDLT who have missed the 12‑month amendment period in section 44. In defined circumstances, it opens a route to reclaim genuine overpayments within a four‑year window. That does not mean paragraph [34] displaces the requirement in section 44; the FTT confirmed as much. HMRC may still contest such claims, subject to the particular facts. The effect of the decision reaches beyond SDLT to overpayment relief in general. The tribunal’s attention to the full suite of materials around the legislation, in order to reach its view, emphasises the breadth of interpretation available for the overpayment provisions and their purpose. Crucially, the judgment should not be treated as a shortcut to ignoring the guidance in...
London Trocadero (2015) LLP v Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and other companies [2025] EWHC 1247 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? In this matter, expert testimony indicated that landlord commissions of up to 37.5% were not unusual when the lease was entered into, and that some tenants may have been overcharged insurance rent by as much as 60%. This suggests that negotiating higher commissions and charging them back has been commonplace. Practitioners must ensure both landlord and tenant clients—particularly anyone within, or dealing with, the Criterion Group—are notified of this ruling without delay. They should assist clients to investigate quickly whether commissions have been received and, if so, what steps to take, keeping in view: any limitation issues; and the prospect that the Trocadero decision could be appealed. The precise lease terms require thorough review, as outcomes may depend on the exact wording. Tenants ought to ask...
On 28th May 2025, the government issued a working paper inviting views on reforming site size thresholds in the planning system to better support housing delivery across different types of sites. It examines how varying site sizes should be treated within the planning system and considers removing barriers specific to developers in this part of the sector. Responses are invited by 9 July 2025. It is the government’s intention to implement changes to development thresholds through amendments to secondary legislation and to introduce other measures (eg a simplified biodiversity net gain ( BNG) metric). The paper sets out a tiered approach that groups residential developments into three thresholds: minor developments: projects with fewer than ten homes or on sites up to 0.5 hectares medium developments: a new proposed category for developments between 10 and 49 homes or up to one...
The Scottish Government brought forward the Building Safety Levy ( Scotland) Bill (the Bill) to the Scottish Parliament on 5 June 2025. The Bill establishes a Scottish building safety levy (the ‘ SBSL’, or the ‘levy’) to be imposed on specified residential property developments. Revenues from the levy are to be used by the Scottish Government ‘for the purposes of improving the safety of persons in or about buildings in Scotland’. In particular, the Government plans to apply the funds to the remediation of residential buildings with unsafe cladding. This article outlines the background to the Bill and its key provisions. Background to the Bill The Bill originates in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, which heightened serious concerns over the safety of external wall cladding systems on medium- and high-rise buildings in the UK. Central to the Scottish...
Nellsar Ltd v HMRC [2025] UKUT 164 ( TCC) Nellsar had purchased five care homes as going concerns. On each transaction, its financial statements apportioned the consideration between goodwill and the freehold estate by reference to DRC, with a modest allocation to fixtures and fittings, which was uncontroversial. As amounts booked as goodwill in GAAP-compliant accounts attract amortisation relief for corporation tax, Nellsar benefited from attributing a larger slice to goodwill, and the disagreement therefore turned on the proper accounting treatment, for corporation tax purposes, of goodwill arising on these acquisitions. Upholding the FTT’s approach, which placed a greater proportion of the price on the properties and consequently reduced the goodwill, the UT stated that there was ample evidence supporting the FTT’s conclusions—namely, that GAAP, and in particular FRS 7.9(a), mandated use of the market value of the care home properties rather than their DRC. The UT...
Key points in the proposals The consultation seeks to fine‑tune the BNG framework to better suit minor, medium and brownfield schemes, ensuring biodiversity gains are both workable and effective across different development scales and contexts. Proposed changes to exemptions The government is weighing revisions to existing BNG exemptions to lessen burdens on low‑impact projects: Single‑dwelling exemption: substituting the current self‑build/custom build carve‑out with a wider exemption for single homes De minimis threshold: increasing the habitat impact exemption from 25 square metres to higher levels (e.g. 50, 100 or 200 square metres), enabling more minor schemes to proceed without BNG requirements Major development exemption: considering exempting everything except major developments from BNG, effectively returning to the pre‑2 April 2024 position The government is considering additional exemptions for: parks, public gardens and playing fields developments primarily aimed......
Scatola and others v HMRC [2025] UKUT 156 ( TCC) The appeals serve as lead cases brought by three unrelated pairs of taxpayers, each of whom adopted a marketed SDLT avoidance scheme designed to eliminate SDLT on buying a dwelling, akin to the arrangements examined and rejected in Project Blue [2018] UKSC 30. The planning comprised a sub-sale to V Ltd, a Guernsey special purpose vehicle, followed by the grant back to the taxpayers of a 999-year lease. Three SDLT returns were submitted: return A, covering the taxpayers’ acquisition of the freehold, showed no SDLT as sub-sale relief was claimed return B, filed by V Ltd for its freehold purchase, reported no SDLT via Finance Act 2003 section 71A relief (alternative property finance) return C, concerning the taxpayers’ lease acquisition, again showed no SDLT, relying on FA 2003, s 71A HMRC then commenced an enquiry into the...
In this issue: Leasing property Insolvency in property Regulatory compliance Property management Property transfers Property taxation Property development Environment, energy and buildings Lex Talk®Property: a Lexis®Nexis community Further property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q& A Leasing property Consultation on security of tenure for business tenancies—interim statement from Law Commission. Following its first consultation on the future of security of tenure for business tenants under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( LTA 1954), the Law Commission released an interim statement on 4 June 2025. It sets out provisional conclusions on the aspects covered, which will guide the next phase and form the basis of a second consultation paper, to ensure the LTA 1954 works for today’s commercial leasehold market....
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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