UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Colin Rodrigues and Harminder Sandhu, Hawkins Hatton Corporate Lawyers Ltd
Biodiversity Net Gain From 12 February 2024, all developers must understand the requirements of biodiversity net gain (BNG). The objective is to create and improve natural habitats by measuring the impact of development on biodiversity, and developers will have to deliver a net gain of at least 10% more than there was before the devel - opment. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill The objective here is to reform home ownership in the UK, which includes making it easier for existing leaseholders to extend their leases or buy the freehold, as well as greater transparency in relation to costs (such as service charges). The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 This Act limited ground rents on new long leases to a peppercorn, and the government has been consulting on broadening this to a retrospective cap on ground rents for existing leases. The con - sultation ended on 17 January 2024. Law Society The Law Society is consulting on a new draft code for the signing and exchanging of property contracts, with the objective being to allow the use of new technologies. It is likely that the new code will be mandatory for Conveyancing Qual - ity Scheme residential transactions, but will likely not be mandatory for commercial agreements.
energy sectors. Sweeping changes of this nature will require the government to commit resources and skills. The Act also include proposals for the Secre - tary of State to obtain disclosure of the owner - ship of land. In December 2023, the government published a consultation (which closed on 21 February 2024) on transparency of land owner - ship involving trusts, in order to seek comments and to widen access to information held in the Register of Overseas Entities as well as owner - ship of land in the UK. This area will be subject to further reform. The Act grants powers to local authorities to implement rental auctions for vacant high-street properties. How the regime will work remains to be seen. The Act also sets out a framework for reform of the Community Infrastructure Levy and for replacing this with a new regime – the Infrastruc - ture Levy – based on gross development value rather than floor space. These changes will be The Law Commission has announced a review of the commercial leasing rules, including (most importantly) the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The Commission is due to publish a consultation paper on the review by the autumn of 2024. The Renters’ Reform Bill This was recently introduced to reform the pri - vate rental sector, including the abolition of Sec - tion 21 “no fault” evictions and measures to deal with rental increases. It will likely be passed in the autumn of 2024. published at some point in 2024. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954
2. Sale and Purchase 2.1 Categories of Property Rights
The Law of Property Act 1925 creates two cat - egories of property rights within England and Wales:
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