As of April 6 this year, the planning rules in England have been relaxed for the conversion of agricultural buildings to residential use, which should make a difference to the property shortage in the UK as well as breathing life into rural communities.
Consultation On New Powers For HMRC
Chancellor George Osborne will today (April 14) launch a consultation on a new criminal offence carrying a possible custodial sentence that will catch people with undeclared foreign income, even if they did not intend to evade taxes.
Tighter Regulation Could Save Businesses Millions
According to a report from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), planned regulatory reforms could save businesses some £300m a year, or £1.5bn over five years.
ECHR Upholds UK Law Banning Sympathy Strikes
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has upheld a UK law preventing so-called ‘sympathy strikes’, which have been banned by UK legislation since the early 1990s.
ECJ Overturns The Data Retention Directive
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared the 2006 Data Retention Directive, which has been described as a “snooper’s charter”, illegal, saying that it “interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data”.