Poppleton & Appleby

Government announces extension of insolvency measures The Government has extended the measures put in place by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act in order to protect businesses from insolvency, giving them a much-needed breathing space during the pandemic. Many changes to the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act were due to expire at the end of September. However, as of 24th September, the measures have been extended to the end of December 2020 and in some cases to March 2021. Summary of temporary measures: Companies with any obligations to hold AGMs will continue to have the flexibility to hold these meetings [...]

How does the Coronavirus Job Support Scheme work? Yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new scheme to increase the wages of workers who have had to cut their hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Job Support Scheme will help to protect viable jobs in businesses that are likely to face a lower demand as we head into the winter months as opposed to all job roles which were supported as part of the initial furlough scheme. The new scheme will start in November replacing the existing furlough scheme which ends on October 31 2020. How will the new Job [...]

The spectre of the return of HMRC preferential status We have commented in several blogs and to clients directly and can confirm that the enactment of the Finance Bill on 22nd July 2020 paves the way for the reintroduction of preferential status for the vast majority of HMRC liabilities in insolvencies. Background As a potted history lesson, HMRC held preferential status up to the implementation of the Enterprise Act in 2003. This unexpectedly revoked this status in favour of a policy aimed at business enterprise and with the objective to return enhanced distributions to ordinary trade creditors in insolvencies. In [...]

The introduction into law of the CIGA on the 26th June 2020 represents the most significant reforms to the UK insolvency and restructuring framework for nearly two decades.