NHBC Building Control Services, the largest registered building control approver, has been issued with an improvement notice after failing to properly record evidence in its site inspection reports. The notice highlights concerns about the adequacy of record-keeping within building control processes.
The article argues that AI can improve productivity and profitability in legal services, but only if firms adopt it with strong governance, security and oversight. It warns that many UK firms are using AI without adequate policies, creating risks around confidentiality, bias, hallucinations and unsanctioned use of consumer tools.
The Environment Agency has updated its WEEE evidence and national protocols guidance, including changes to evidence issuance, reporting templates, and contract requirements between approved authorised treatment facilities and producer compliance schemes. The update also introduces new provisions for vape waste, including a national protocol for battery deductions and revised recovery and recycling targets for Category 15.
The Environment Agency has updated its regulatory position statement on collecting and treating non-hazardous waste from different businesses within the same premises. It confirms that an environmental permit is still legally required for the waste operation, but enforcement action is unlikely if the stated conditions are met, and the review date has been extended to 30 April 2029.
A London landlord and associated letting agencies have lost an appeal at the First-tier Property Tribunal over penalties linked to non-compliance with Waltham Forest’s selective licensing scheme. The tribunal upheld £105,000 in fines across six test properties, rejecting arguments about licence duration, liability, and alleged double punishment.
Accountants are warning that many taxpayers, including landlords, misunderstand the new Making Tax Digital for Income Tax requirements ahead of the first quarterly submission deadline on 7 August. The scheme now requires qualifying taxpayers to keep digital records and file quarterly updates using compatible software, with wider rollout thresholds set to bring more landlords into scope over time.
The government has said that firms applying to the new Single Construction Regulator will be required to use legally mandated common data standards. The measure is intended to support automated information exchange and improve regulatory processes.
The Environment Agency led a multi-agency operation in Cumbria targeting waste carriers and permitted waste sites, with checks on vehicle movements, licences, paperwork and permit compliance. Several breaches were identified and further investigation and enforcement action may follow under the agency’s wider 10 Point Plan to tackle waste crime.
The Environment Agency has published a notice inviting public consultation on an environmental permit application from CPI Innovation Services Limited for the Wilton Centre in Redcar. The application relates to a Radioactive Substances Activity, with the Agency considering whether to grant or refuse the permit and what conditions should apply if approved.
A London landlord and his property management company have been fined and ordered to pay court costs totalling £63,000 after being prosecuted over unsafe conditions at an unlicensed 22-room HMO in Kensington and Chelsea. The case involved serious fire and health and safety failings, including damaged fire doors, inadequate fire separation, covered alarms and electrical defects, with the court finding the operators failed to act on opportunities to remedy the issues.
Brighton & Hove Council is expanding its selective licensing scheme from four wards to six this autumn, with a phased rollout expected to cover 13 wards in total. The council says the scheme is intended to improve property conditions and management in the private rented sector, with support offered to landlords and agents and an estimated 7,274 properties requiring licences.
New Freedom of Information data suggests the FCA opened only one mortgage fraud enforcement investigation in 2025, down from three to four annually in the previous three years. The article links this decline to wider concerns that fraud is becoming more digital, AI-enabled and harder to detect, despite new government measures in the Home Office Fraud Strategy 2026–2029.
