Do I still need to pay instalments of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) while the development site is closed?

The Government’s Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act introduces amendments to the current rules for companies on holding meetings, to address the difficulties companies are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new provisions apply to meetings held between 26 March 2020 and 30 September 2020 (referred to as the “Relevant Period”). Subsequent regulations by the Government can be used to shorten this period or extend by up to 3 months but not past 5 April 2021.

The provisions will have retrospective effect, so meetings that were held after 26 March 2020 that may not have met the usual legal requirements due to lockdown, will be validated under these new provisions. These provisions under the Act make amends to relevant legislation and override a company’s articles of association.

For general meetings and certain other meetings of companies, the Act states that:

• The meeting need not be held in any particular place;
• The meeting may be held, and any votes may be cast, by electronic means or other means;
• The meeting may be held without anyone being in the same place
• Persons attending the meeting no longer have the following rights: the right to attend in person, the right to participate in the meeting other than by voting, or the right to vote by particular means.

The aim of these changes is to facilitate virtual meetings, and remove the need for a physical venue.

Where a company was required to hold its AGM between 26 March and 30 September 2020, it can be held at any time before 30 September 2020.  The Secretary of State has the power to make regulations to further extend the deadline.

The Government expects the use of bespoke contractual documents to implement temporary arrangements relating to your PFI contracts.

With time and resource precious commodities, focus should be given to documenting:

• The key changes to your PFI requirements
• The temporary nature of the measures
• The requirement for best efforts on behalf of the PFI Contractor
• The importance of continued health and safety measures at all times

If a contract contains a force majeure clause this may become operative due to the coronavirus pandemic and related emergency legislation. Such clauses exist to ensure that if some unforeseen event prevents a party from being able to perform their obligations under a contract, either on time or at all, they will be excused from their obligations and not be held liable for non-performance.

The clause must actually be written into the contract to have effect – a force majeure clause cannot be implied into a contract. Whether it can be relied on by a party will depend on the wording of the clause itself as it may only be applicable in certain limited circumstances.

You should seek legal advice at an early stage if you think that force majeure is relevant, because a number of potentially complex issues must be addressed, many of which will turn upon the exact wording of the force majeure clause in the contract in question:

• Has a force majeure event actually arisen?
• What notification process do you have to follow to rely on the provision?
• What mitigation steps do you have to take?
• What is the effect of the force majeure event – is the contract suspended, or can it be terminated (which might not be what you want)?

We have developed a Toolkit to help with these issues. The Toolkit contains:

• LO1 How to Guide: Lay off and short time working
• LO2 Letter directing employee to take annual leave
• LO3 Letter confirming lay off (contractual right)
• LO4 Letter confirming short time working (contractual right)
• LO5 Letter proposing lay off (no contractual right)
• LO6 Letter proposing short time working (no contractual right)
• LO7 Counter notice disputing entitlement to claim redundancy payment
• LO8 Script for announcing lay off or short time working (contractual right)
• LO9 Script for announcing lay off or short time working (no contractual right)
• LO10 Letter proposing reduction in working hours and pay

The cost of this Toolkit is £500 plus vat. If you would like to find out more about the Toolkit, please speak to your usual Ward Hadaway employment contact, or get in touch one of the contacts at the bottom of this page.

From 1 July 2020 the furlough scheme has been operating more flexibly.

The key changes from 1 July 2020 were:

• All furloughed employees are subject to the new flexible furlough rules and the new basis for calculating claims
• Furloughed employees can be brought back to work on a part-time basis for any amount of time and can work any work pattern
• Employers can claim for the hours not worked compared the hours the person would normally have worked in that period
• There must be a new written furlough agreement in place to record the agreement with the furloughed employee to return to work part-time
• The new agreement (including a collective agreement) must be made before any period of flexible furlough begins but it may be varied at a later stage if necessary. The agreement must be incorporated into the employee’s contract of employment, either expressly or impliedly
• Employers must keep a record of this agreement until at least 30 June 2025, and they must also keep a record of the hours the furlough employee worked and the hours that they were furloughed
• Employees can be furloughed from 1 July 2020 for any amount of time and more than once
• However, if you re-furloughed an employee after 10 June but before 1 July 2020, they had to be furloughed for an initial period of three consecutive weeks
• Claims for payments under the scheme must not cross calendar months so if you are claiming for the initial three week period of a re-furloughed employee who was furloughed on 12 June for example, you must submit separate claims for the dates in June and July
• Although flexible furlough agreements can last any length of time, you should only submit a claim to HMRC once a week.