The Finance Act 2013: What can we expect following the Autumn Statement?

Michael Cant reviews the real estate implications of the Finance Act 2013 The position in relation to CGT is obviously proving more difficult than HMRC first thought as the draft clauses to deal with the change were not released with the rest but are promised for January 2013. It seems likely that the Finance Act …
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Planning And Environment Update

Angus Evers considers whether the government appears to be putting the brakes on civil sanctions on environmental offences and Matthew Mainstone assesses the latest proposals on judicial review procedures and the planning appeal process The Environment Agency has been using civil sanctions primarily to take enforcement action in respect of breaches of the Producer Responsibility …
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Planning And Environment Update: Changes to judicial review

Angus Evers considers whether the government appears to be putting the brakes on civil sanctions on environmental offences and Matthew Mainstone assesses the latest proposals on judicial review procedures and the planning appeal process When properly used, statements of common ground serve an extremely useful purpose of narrowing down the issues to be considered at …
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Local Authorities: Testing the limits of ultra vires

Peter Levaggi and Alison Crabbe examine a case where a local authority tried unsuccessfully to evade its contractual obligations The High Court had found that Cornwall’s purported breach of fiduciary duty resided solely in the local authorities’ failure to have regard for market rents. It is an unattractive feature of public law that allows public …
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Community Infrastructure Levy: Impact on existing unimplemented permissions

Christopher Cant contemplates some of the unwelcome consequences of the CIL regime and the government’s efforts to deal with them Unfortunately, the CIL regime is not going to be as simple as claimed. The levy is an unwanted burden in difficult financial times. Many developers had hoped that the community infrastructure levy (CIL) would be …
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Insurance Obligations: There is no smoke without fire

Mamoon Chaudhary looks at different causes of action for liability in fire-related cases and what can be done to cover the risk Where it can be shown the outbreak of the fire was accidental, failure to stop the fire from ensuing is regarded as a second fire to be governed by negligence principles. Commercial property …
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Apportionment And Breaks: Breaking up is hard to do

Daniel Cuthbert discusses the vexed issue of apportionment of rent following the exercise of a break clause It may be possible to argue that a term should be implied, that rent is paid for the period of occupation only and that any overpayment caused by early termination ought to be repaid. Recent case law suggests …
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