A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry 

The EU AI Act is one of the most significant pieces of technology regulation to emerge in recent years and it is still taking shape. In May 2026 alone, the EU provisionally agreed material changes through the Digital Omnibus on AI (see our previous briefing on the "AI Omnibus"), postponing key compliance deadlines, and published draft guidance on high-risk system classification and transparency requirements.

At the beginning of this year, the Government published draft legislation to reform leasehold and to mandate the use of the commonhold tenure for new flats, as explored in an earlier briefing.  It also asked the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee to interrogate its proposals in order to suggest some improvements. The Committee published its report on 27 May 2026.  This proposes some changes to the leasehold reform provisions in the draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, and also puts forward several recommendations about reinvigorating commonhold, which are discussed below:

Many businesses make loans as part of their employee incentive arrangements typically to fund the purchase of shares in the company by employees or the trustees of an employee benefit trust.  These loans are often on relatively "soft" terms which can give rise to corresponding benefit in kind tax charges where the recipient is an employee or director.  If the company making the loan is a "close" company for tax purposes and the recipient is a "participator" (which includes shareholders and those entitled to acquire shares) an additional tax charge can arise for the company.  Under proposals set out in a current government consultation, on top of these considerations, close companies will have to comply with additional reporting obligations in respect of transactions with participators to avoid penalties.

Whatever the strategy, the judgement and experience of your investment team is the key to success. And, in launching the sovereign AI fund – a £500m venture capital fund – the UK government seems to have got that right.

This article was first published in the May 2026 issue of Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.

By James Bell and Sarah Lauder

The Upper Tribunal ("UT") dismisses appeals of two companies against the decision of the First-tier tribunal ("FTT") to uphold HMRC's denial of Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief to investor shareholders.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

A new Energy Independence Bill was announced in the King's Speech yesterday. However, the speech (and earlier references to this Bill, for example in the Labour Manifesto) gives us little to go on beyond the words 'energy' and 'independence' – already themselves very much the buzz words of the administration of late, particularly in the wake of recent events in Iran.

The EU Commission's simplification drive continues following the finalisation of the Sustainability Omnibus Directive. Attention now turns to the reporting standards themselves, a critical piece of the puzzle for undertakings remaining in scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") to understand what will be required of them from the next financial year (in most cases). The Commission is also looking to finalise revised voluntary reporting standards for companies not in scope of CSRD, which is important not just for those companies that do wish to report voluntarily, but also for those in the value chains of reporters, as explained further below.  

Today's State Opening of Parliament marks the beginning of a new Parliamentary session. In the ceremony, the King formally opened Parliament and, in the King’s Speech, set out the Government’s proposed policies and legislation for that session.  The speech contained four items of interest to the real estate sector:

Businesses facing the onset of high-risk AI system obligations in August 2026 will now have significantly more time to prepare. On 7 May 2026, EU lawmakers reached political agreement on revisions to the AI Act, bringing some much-needed certainty after a fraught end to April, when negotiations on the Digital Omnibus on AI almost broke down.

This briefing is for:

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 (the "CPA") received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Among its wide-ranging provisions, the CPA contains a measure of significant consequence for all businesses with a connection to the UK: the extension of the reformed identification doctrine to all criminal offences.

RICS' new service charge residential management code came into effect on 7 April 2026. It provides, amongst other things, guidance for landlords and managing agents on key provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022.

In this issue, we look at whether UK fire and rehire reforms could affect outsourcing. We also discuss consumer-facing outsourcings, the impact of the Middle East crisis, cloud switching, the expansion of unfair dismissal rights, new EU rules affecting financial services outsourcings and UK rules affecting premises and event management outsourcings.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry