Our June 2022 summary of the latest developments in Property law and practice is as follows:

The Residential Property Developer Tax (RPDT) on property developers takes effect from 1 April 2022. RPDT is part of a package of measures proposed to deal with the problem of unsafe cladding in multi-occupied buildings. The government’s aim is to ensure that the larger developers make a fair contribution to help fund the government’s cladding remediation costs. The tax is to be charged on the developer as if it were an amount of corporation tax chargeable on it. Companies need to be within the charge to corporation tax to be subject to RPDT.

The Government has announced that the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 will come into force on 30 June 2022. Ground rent charges will be banned on most new residential leases from this date, putting an end an end to increasing annual costs. This is the first step in a government reform package designed to create a fairer housing system, levelling up opportunities for more people.

In connection with last month’s Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022, the government has published an updated Code of Practice on Covid-19 rent arrears.

The updated Code sets out what the arbitration process for unpaid rents, introduced in the Act, looks like, the evidence that is considered, and the principles on which arbitration awards are made. It sets out what is expected of both landlords and tenants throughout arbitration, but it can be used by any business struggling with rent arrears – even if it falls outside scope of the Act’s scheme.

A number of local planning authorities have been advised by Natural England (as a statutory consultee for development plans, Environmental Impact Assessments and a number of other matters) that development in multiple key protected areas, affecting 42 local planning authorities overall, can only proceed if it is nutrient neutral. This means that permitted developments may only proceed if the process will not add to pollution to rivers, lakes and water.