Debtwire Radio

The UK government released on 29 October the Budget Bill for the 2019-2020 financial year. While wider macro issues such as the so-called end to austerity and the uncertainties around Brexit dominated mainstream press headlines, it was easy to overlook other provisions in the Bill which may have a significant impact on distressed corporations. Kirkland & Ellis restructuring partner, Kate Stephenson, sat down with Hossein Dabiri, Head of Debtwire's court reporting in Europe to discuss the potential implications of the Bill on restructurings and insolvencies. The most important and consequential element of the Bill, as far as debt workouts are concerned, is probably the return of certain categories of HMRC’s claims to their preferential status. This turn of event, a decade and a half after the Enterprise Act 2002, which came into force in 2003, would place all HMRC claims on equal footing with a company’s other unsecured claims.