Insights: Thought Leadership - November 2020

The biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, is fast approaching, but before you splurge on buying the latest home gadgets and Smart devices, it is worth thinking about whether those devices could be used against you as a means of control or harassment during your relationship and/or when the relationship breaks down. “Smart-Monitoring, […]

On 5 November 2020, the Government announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) would be extended into next spring, with the scheme now ending on 31 March 2020. In the intervening weeks since the announcement, the Government has published updated guidance and a new Treasury Direction setting out the rules for this latest phase […]

On 11 November, the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) published the first part of its report into simplifying the design of Capital Gains Tax (CGT). Rather than simplify the operation of CGT, many of the recommendations in the report seek to radically overhaul CGT and provide a potentially significant source of tax revenue for the […]

On Tuesday 17 November 2020 the High Court rejected an application that has been brought by an environmental campaigning organisation to quash new planning regulations made by the Government in July. The new regulations amended the use classes order to create a new commercial, business and service Use Class and introduced further permitted development rights […]

Introduction The unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on occupiers of commercial premises, particularly those in the retail and leisure sectors, has led to many landlords and tenants striking deals to waive or vary existing lease terms in a way that would have been unthinkable just a matter of months ago. Sometimes the desire of landlords to […]

Introduction So you have read your lease from cover to cover and you think you know what it says?  Right? Wrong!  Although the vast majority of the text of the lease will be definitive as to the rights and obligations of the parties, there are some situations where it is necessary to look beyond the […]

While the various restrictions preventing landlords from taking actions against tenants to recover rent arrears during the Covid-19 pandemic have provided much needed breathing space for tenants, none of these measures extinguish tenants’ liabilities. Tenants have therefore been looking at other avenues to defend claims for rent arrears. Could insurance and rent suspension be the […]

Passport to Pimlico or an Ealing Comedy? EEA Firms that provide regulated financial services in the UK through the EU’s Freedom of Establishment or Freedom of Services passporting systems will soon lose the right to do so as a result of Brexit. The UK’s transition period for leaving the European Union will end on 31 […]

Background The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Marriott International Inc (Marriott) £18.4million for failing to keep millions of customers’ personal data secure. Marriott’s breach of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) came to light as a result of an attack on the IT systems of Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide Inc (Starwood) […]

With the end of the Brexit transition period nearing, it is important that employers are ready for the new immigration system, which will come into force from 1 January 2021. Our Immigration team are on hand to advise how you could be impacted by the forthcoming changes.  Please click here to read about the new […]