UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Colin Rodrigues and Harminder Sandhu, Hawkins Hatton Corporate Lawyers Ltd
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 This Act has been rushed through parliament due to the Ukraine conflict. The objective is transparency with regards to ownership of land in the UK by overseas entities (a legal entity gov - erned by the law of a country outside the UK). The overseas entity must register its beneficial owner details on the Register of Overseas Enti - ties to enable it to register any proprietorship at HM Land Registry. Where an overseas entity owned land in the UK when the Act came into force, it had six months to register its beneficial owner details in the Register of Overseas Enti - ties. The deadline was 31 January 2023. After this date, any application to register a disposal at the Land Registry is caught by a restriction pre - venting registration of any disposal in the Reg - ister of Overseas Entities, unless the overseas entity is registered. There has since been a further round of legisla - tion, namely the Economic Crime and Corpo - rate Transparency Act, which became law on 26 October 2023. The Act makes two principal changes to the Register of Overseas Entities, which will come into effect in 2024 – namely, it expands the scope of registrable beneficial inter - est for the purpose of the ROE and expands the information that must be delivered to Companies House. The changes are aimed at addressing the criticism that the true beneficial owners of a foreign entity were not being identified. The Act will also deliver significant reforms to Companies House to improve transparency over UK companies and other legal entities to enhance national security. The Act will reform the role of Companies House and improve transparency for UK companies and other legal entities, in order to enhance
sectors, as there is potential for rental growth, while the office and retail sectors continue to decline. CBRE Group reported that office invest - ment in 2023 was at its lowest level in 20 years, with only GBP6.5 billion invested in the first three quarters of 2023. With the emphasis on envi - ronmentally sustainable buildings, office space in good locations with outdoor space is likely to see rental growth due to its scarcity. It is also predicted that technology companies will seek new office space, as (for example) artificial intel - ligence is likely to see its largest growth in 2024 due to increased private equity investment. 1.3 Proposals for Reform The Building Safety Act 2022 This Act is now in force, imposing far-reaching legal responsibilities on those who: • commission building work; • are involved in design and construction; and • manage structural/fire safety in relation to high-risk buildings. The reforms came into force in stages, includ - ing in April 2023 and October 2023. Current high-risk buildings capable of occupation had to be registered with the Building Safety Regu - lator (BSR) by 30 September 2023. New high- risk buildings completed after 1 October 2023 must be declared as safe by the BSR prior to occupation. The real issue continues to be costs or remedial works. The government issued a second consul - tation in January 2024 on a new building safety levy to raise revenue for dealing with defective cladding, which closed on 7 February 2024. There is no indication of when the levy will be launched, but the expectation is to raise GBP3 billion over ten years.
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