As you know, the state opening of Parliament took place this morning, with Prince Charles announcing the Government’s legislative plans for this session of Parliament in the Queen’s absence.
There were 38 Bills in all. The Bills with particular relevance to Equity Release Council members are:
Financial Services and Market Bill
This Bill aims to enhance the UK’s international position within financial services, promoting a competitive marketplace by cutting red tape and ‘seizing the benefits of Brexit’ by establishing a coherent and internationally-respected approach to regulation that best suits the UK’s interest.
- One aspect of this will be seeking to harness the opportunities of innovative technologies in financial services, including supporting the safe adoption of cryptocurrencies and resilient outsourcing to technology providers.
- The Bill will revoke retained EU law on financial services and replace it with a UK-tailored approach, updating the objectives of the financial services regulators to ensure a greater focus on growth and international competitiveness.
- It will also reform the rules that regulate the UK’s capital markets to promote investment and aim to ensure people across the UK continue to be able to access their own cash with ease
- Will introduce additional protections for those investing or using financial products, to make it safer and support the victims of scams
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022
This Act will come into force on 30th June and means landlords will be prevented from requiring a financial ground rent in most new long residential leases. The Government will also publish accompanying guidance for enforcement officers and consumers.
CMA investigation into the leasehold sector to continue
- It was also announced the Government will continue to work closely with the Competition and Markets Authority as their investigation into mis-selling and unfair terms in the leasehold sector continues. In recent months, the Authority secured commitments from fifteen businesses that had bought freeholds from the housing developer Countryside to remove egregious doubling ground rents terms for their leaseholders and revert charges to original rates.
- The Government also say it encourages developers who have not yet engaged with the investigation to do so.
Draft Audit Reform Bill
The purpose of this bill is to rebuild trust in the UK’s audit, corporate reporting and corporate governance system, as well as its the insolvency regulatory framework and to increase accountability for those with key roles in that system. The Government hopes it will increase resilience and choice in the statutory audit market and make the UK a world-leading destination for investment.
- The bill will establish a new statutory regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, which will be tasked with protecting and promoting the interests of investors and overseeing and regulating the accountancy and actuarial professions. The Bill will also provide new measures to ‘open up the market’, including a new approach of managed shared audit in which challenger firms can undertake a share of the work on large-scale audits.
Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill
A highlight of the Queen’s Speech, the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will be a large Bill legislating on some of the proposals announced in the levelling up White Paper and incorporating many of DLUHC’s wider aims.
- The Bill is to include a duty on the Government to set Levelling Up missions and produce an annual report updating the country on delivery of these missions, and will create a new model of combined authority: the ‘County Deal’ which will provide local leaders with powers to enhance local accountability, join up services and provide transparent decision making to rejuvenate their communities and increase their ability to reflect local preferences in arrangements including directly elected leaders’ titles.
- The Bill will also award new powers for local authorities to bring empty premises into use and instigate rental auctions of vacant commercial properties in town centres and on high streets, and will give residents more of a say over street names and ensuring everyone can continue to benefit from al fresco dining.
- Significantly, the Bill intends to strengthen neighbourhood planning and will digitalise systems to make local plans easier to find and engage with; making it easier for local authorities to get local plans in place with the aim of limiting speculative development.
- Significantly, the Bill will also bring the largest private companies in scope of regulation in the definition of ‘public interest entities’, recognising the public interest in companies of this size.
We shall now be studying the legislation in more detail and will keep members informed of progress.
For a broader a summary of the full legislative programme prepared by our parliamentary partners, Interel, click here.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]
