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In its 2024 Manifesto (the "Manifesto"), as highlighted in our post-election Infrastructure Spotlight, the Labour Party made some ambitious commitments towards accelerating the UK on its path to net zero, in addition to overhauling and regenerating the UK's ageing infrastructure, by using public investment "to crowd in private funding".
The Water (Special Measures) Bill (the "Bill") was introduced into Parliament on 4 September 2024 and is currently at the Committee stage in the House of Lords ("HoL"). As part of its announcement introducing the Bill, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs ("DEFRA") emphasised that the Bill is intended to significantly strengthen the power of water industry regulators in the UK – holding water companies to account "where they have failed to deliver for the environment and customers and begin to restore trust in the industry".
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Find the latest news, views and our analysis of all the key announcements.
In line with expectations, a series of Inheritance Tax changes have been announced by the Chancellor. The three new policies announced at the Budget can be summarised as follows:
It should come as no surprise that measures contained in the Budget replace the UK's current tax regime for non-UK domiciled individuals ("non-doms") with a new regime. Before the general election, the previous Conservative government and the Labour party in opposition both committed to introducing this change.
Prior to the Budget, there was widespread speculation that the Chancellor would make sweeping changes to the Capital Gains Tax ("CGT") regime, either by significantly increasing rates or by radically reducing existing reliefs (or both). However, as it turns out, most will likely view the Budget CGT changes as being relatively modest in comparison with what the government might have introduced. It seems unlikely the measures announced today will cause a substantial change in taxpayer behaviour as, crucially, there still remains a significant delta between the highest rates of income tax (45%) and capital gains tax (24%).
From an incentives and remuneration perspective, the measures announced in the Budget were rather piecemeal. With no fundamental changes to tax-advantaged employee plans (we are still waiting for a response to the call for evidence on all-employee plans) other aspects of the Chancellor's statement could nevertheless increase their appeal.
On 8 October 2024, the Investment Association (IA) published its much anticipated "Principles of Remuneration" (Principles) to guide remuneration committees over the 2025 AGM season.
The FCA has published some key findings on non-financial misconduct, including action points for firms. Although the survey was aimed at wholesale firms, the key findings report (Report) sets out some actions that firms should take in order to address non-financial misconduct.
In the fifth episode of this series, Senior Counsel Elissavet Grout, Senior Counsel Joseph Sheldrick and Associate Amy Broderick from our Tax team discuss the current inheritance tax rules and the potential changes that are anticipated in the forthcoming Autumn Budget.
In the sixth episode of this series, Nick White, Knowledge Counsel in our Pensions team, outlines some of the pensions tax options available to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, as she prepares to deliver the new Government's first Budget.
In the seventh episode of this series, Senior Associate Aimee Hutchinson and Associate Claudia French from our Tax team shed light on some possible changes Labour may make to Real Estate taxes ahead of the forthcoming Autumn Budget. They discuss Labour's manifesto pledges, the future of the reserved investor fund and how other anticipated tax changes to CGT and carried interest will impact the real estate sector.
In the first episode of our series From Manifesto to Budget, Tax Partner Elena Rowlands, and Senior Associates Tom Margesson and Sarah Roman from our Asset Management Tax team provide an overview of the carried interest tax rules and discuss what measures the Government might introduce in the upcoming Autumn Budget 2024 to close what it has termed the "carried interest loophole".