New legislation hit the statue books on Wednesday bringing updates to the legislation governing special administrations for regulated water companies in England and Wales. The changes are timely (some may even consider them overdue) given the current market instability, and provide flexible options should the regime have to be used.

Company insolvencies in England and Wales are at their highest quarterly level since 2009, according to a report released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week.

A week is often described as a long time in politics, and so also (it seems) with the restructuring market.

Last week, we saw significant strides forward with:

The restructuring market has been eagerly anticipating the judgments in the New Look and Regis CVA challenges. The New Look judgment was handed down on 10 May 2021 and the Regis Judgment followed on 17 May 2021. This article briefly sets out the issues in the New Look CVA challenge, the decision of Mr Justice Zacaroli and what this means for the future of CVAs.

Overview of the New Look CVA Challenge

The claim brought by the Applicants (a consortium of compromised landlords) can be summarised briefly under three heads of claim:

The UK Restructuring Plan took its first foray down the well-trodden path of lease restructuring over the last week. The Restructuring Plan has been used through to court sanction in five cases so far: however, none has sought to compromise landlord claims, the preferred tool for which has until now been the CVA.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 makes the most significant changes to UK insolvency law in a generation. It had a rapid passage through the UK parliamentary process, making its way from first publication on 20 May 2020 to Royal assent on 25 June 2020 in just over five weeks. This article provides a brief overview of the key measures introduced by the Act (both permanent and temporary) and summarises the amendments made to the Act during its progress through parliament. It also provides links to our further, more in-depth, analysis.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 makes the most significant changes to UK insolvency law in a generation. It had a rapid passage through the UK parliamentary process, making its way from first publication on 20 May 2020 to Royal assent on 25 June 2020 in just over five weeks. This article provides a brief overview of the key measures introduced by the Act (both permanent and temporary) and summarises the amendments made to the Act during its progress through parliament. It also provides links to our further, more in-depth, analysis.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill has been described as an “extraordinary Bill for extraordinary times” . First published on 20 May 2020, it has had a rapid passage through the UK parliamentary process, so it could become law (an Act of Parliament) by the end of June. At the time of writing, the Bill is almost at the end of its parliamentary journey with only one final stage outstanding - a return to the House of Commons for a consideration of amendments - before it is sent for Royal Assent and becomes law.

While a range of outcomes, including a departure under the terms of the current Withdrawal Agreement, remains possible, it is important for businesses to plan for a no-deal Brexit, in which the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement or other deal. Here we look at the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit on cross-border corporate recovery and insolvency.

Key issues

Immediately following the results of the UK referendum on exiting the EU in June 2016, we wrote about the potential impact of Brexit on cross-border restructuring and insolvency work. As we identified then, the key issue in this area is the potentially significant implications of losing the reciprocal effect of the EU Regulation on insolvency proceedings and the Brussels Regulation (recast). In this article we focus on the impact of the loss of recognition under the Insolvency Regulation.