Changes are afoot to the statutory regime governing special administrations for regulated water companies (the SAR) following the publication of a suite of new legislation.
Impact of the changes on pension trustees
Further details of the changes are set out in a blog post by restructuring colleagues Helena Clarke and Charlotte Moller. Helena and Charlotte note that perhaps the most significant change for creditors generally, and pension trustees in particular, is the update to the insolvency waterfall to allow for priority payment of government funds. In a nutshell, this means that any funds provided by the Secretary of State to the special administrator by way of loan or grant will be paid out in priority to any s75 debt that may be owed to pension trustees. Given the potential size of such government grants, this could have a sizeable impact on recoveries for pension schemes and all unsecured creditors. Read more here.