London International Disputes Week 2021 (LIDW21) comes at a significant period for the UK legal sector, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, post-Brexit and amid an uncertain global political environment. With its theme: “Looking forward: change, challenge and opportunity”, LIDW21 will provide crucial insights on the business and law of international dispute resolution. The programme draws … Read more

United States President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his administration recently made proposals concerning approximately US$2.3 trillion in government funds to be devoted to infrastructure-related projects in the United States. This is referred to as the Biden Infrastructure Plan, or formally, the “American Jobs Plan” (the Plan). To view a summary of the anticipated structure … Read more

On 18 March 2021, Ofcom published its Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 (WFTMR), which sets out how it will regulate telecoms fixed access services for the next five years. This follows Ofcom proposals to support competitive investment in fibre networks, which we previously reported on Ofcom’s consultation in connection with the WFTMR last year. … Read more

As anticipated in our blog on 14 December 2020, the Treasury has provided further detail on the UK’s new national infrastructure bank (the “Bank”) following the Spring 2021 Budget. The Leeds-based Bank has been given two core policy objectives: To help tackle climate change and help the UK meet its net zero emissions target by … Read more

The implications of the UK’s proposed national security investment screening regime have been widely debated since the National Security and Investment Bill (NSI Bill) was introduced to Parliament on 11 November 2020 (see here for our previous detailed briefing). However, as the NSI Bill progresses through the House of Lords, there has been a notable … Read more

The search for yield is driving infrastructure investors to expand beyond typical core infrastructure assets into core+ or ‘infra-like’ assets. As part of this, infrastructure funds are increasingly looking at capital-heavy healthcare assets like hospitals and diagnostic imaging. Healthcare assets exhibit many similar characteristics to core infrastructure assets, particularly if investors ‘think outside the box’ … Read more

The post below was first published on our Competition blog The EU State aid regime in its current form ceased to be applicable in the UK as at the end of 31 December 2020, when the Brexit transition period expired. Going forward, State aid or “subsidy control” in the UK will be based on the subsidy control … Read more

This is the third post in a three-part series focussing on key legal issues in data centre, fibre and towers acquisitions and investments. See our post on data centre investments here and fibre investments here. Overview The ever increasing demand for connectivity is set to lead to a transformation of the digital infrastructure on which … Read more