In late 2025, HM Treasury set out its proposal to implement the government’s decision for the Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA") to become the sole anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing ("AML/CTF") supervisor for legal, accountancy and trust and company service providers—replacing 22 private‑sector professional body supervisors ("PBSs") and aspects of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs ("HMRC") role. Shortly thereafter the Government ran a consultation, which closed on 24 December 2025, seeking industry views on exactly what duties and powers the FCA would need to perform this role effectively.

Introduction

The senior living sector is an important segment of the real estate market which integrates hospitality, healthcare, lifestyle and property management services within a single operating model.  As the sector has matured, its offerings have evolved and diversified.  Nonetheless, there is still a chronic undersupply of senior housing and frequent misunderstandings about the nature of the product and the benefits it can bring.  In this briefing, real estate partner Sarah Walker and sector expert Paul Teverson discuss the top three trends they expect to see playing out during 2026.

Welcome to our 'A new era for HR' podcast series.

Under the new EMIR/UK EMIR reporting rules and the latest set of amendments to EMIR (“EMIR 3.0”), greater focus is placed on reporting and reporting errors. Download our EMIR/UK EMIR Regulatory Reporting briefing to see how Travers Smith and Validus can help.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

On 30 January 2026, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") launched a consultation on the introduction of mandatory sustainability reporting for listed companies, based on the yet-to-be-finalised UK Sustainability Reporting Standards ("UK SRS"). The consultation will be of high interest to any UK listed company – including overseas companies with a UK listing – though as we explain below, its immediate impact will be relatively limited for the next few years.

At the end of last year, we spent considerable ink (or its virtual equivalent) summarising HM Treasury's now finalised Financial Services and Markets 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 (the SI), and the FCA's barrage of cryptoasset consultation papers that followed in quick succession.

Although the new regulatory regime for heat networks came into force on 27 January 2026, a number of aspects are being phased in over the next 12 months. We look at what businesses caught by the regime need to do – and when.

HMRC has become increasingly assertive in seeking to apply income tax charges to returns that LLP members have viewed as capital or non-taxable in nature. This approach looks set to continue following last week's decision in The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in which the Upper Tribunal (UT) held that a variety of anti-avoidance rules applied to a long-service remuneration scheme.

At the end of last year, the Serious Fraud Office (the "SFO") published guidance for corporates setting out 'when, why and how' it will evaluate an organisation's compliance programme (the "Guidance"). It replaces earlier internal guidance from the SFO (which previously formed part of its operational handbook for prosecutors) and builds on recent efforts by the SFO to improve transparency and provide clarity on how to proactively and effectively engage with, where necessary, fellow regulators (see for example, updated SFO guidance on self-reporting and cooperation published in April 2025 (see here) and the Joint SFO-CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance published in August 2025 (see here)).

We expect the onward march of ESG-related litigation to continue throughout 2026.  Although the last 12 months have seen a fragmentation of policy approaches to ESG issues across various jurisdictions, we expect this only to encourage activists and claimants to redouble their focus on achieving their ESG goals via litigation.  

In this briefing we share a quickfire summary of ten of the key legal changes affecting the senior living sector that we'll be keeping our eyes on this year:

The UK Government published its response to the separate (but aligned) consultations on changing inflation indexation in the Renewables Obligation ("RO") and Feed-in Tariff ("FiT") schemes on 28 January 2026, confirming its intention to proceed with an immediate switch to CPI-based indexation ahead of the next annual adjustment scheduled in April 2026 (i.e. "Option 1" as set out in the original consultations).

On 27 January 2026, the Government published draft legislation to revolutionise the way in which flats are owned and managed in England and Wales. The headlines provisions are as follows:

In his recent address at Davos, Mark Carney heralded the end of a "pleasant fiction", the belief in a stable, rules-based international order where economic integration was a goal in itself. For Carney, the "rupture" in this order marks a shift from global integration towards strategic autonomy and securonomics.

The UK Government's Warm Homes Plan sets out its vision for the transition from fossil fuels to low carbon energy for residential accommodation in the UK. We discuss the implications for businesses involved in new build projects, heat networks and other clean energy technology, together with the retrofit of existing properties, including the private rented sector.

Disruptive times call for durable measures.

Partner Adam Burk and Senior Counsel Ian Luby have authored a chapter on the securitisation of subscription lines and credit NAVs in the latest edition of Global Legal Insights’ annual fund finance publication. In this chapter, they examine the application of EU and UK securitisation rules to subscription lines and credit fund NAV facilities, outlining key regulatory obligations, emerging market trends, and the implications of recent legal developments for fund finance participants.