Category: 3. Business

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government review of the Regulator of Social Housing has concluded, determining a full-scale review is not necessary at this time.

Overall, the review confirmed that the Regulator is a well-run organisation that demonstrates no fundamental weaknesses across its operations.

As part of the government’s commitment to build more social and affordable homes, drive up standards, and ensure social housing landlords remain financially sound, the department has identified key areas where it will work collaboratively with the Regulator to further strengthen its ability to deliver. These will include work to:  

• Strengthen the evidence base on the outcomes delivered by social housing regulation, particularly for residents living in social housing. This will include how the Regulator, and others, can effectively monitor performance.
• Ensure the Regulator continues to operate as efficiently as possible in future years.
• Consider how the regulatory system may need to evolve in the future to respond to any new changes to the social housing sector.
• Explore opportunities for the Regulator to further exploit its use of digital technologies.

The Regulator was subject to a Public Bodies Review last year as part of the wider Cabinet Office programme which routinely assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of all Arm’s Length Bodies.

Further information

The Regulator of Social Housing is a non-departmental public body which regulates registered providers of social housing to maintain a viable, efficient, and well-governed sector that can deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants. The Regulator has a key role in supporting the delivery of new social homes to meet the government’s housing objectives.  

The Regulator was subject to a Public Bodies Review in 2024 as part of the wider Cabinet Office Public Bodies Review Programme. These reviews consider the governance, accountability, efficacy, and efficiency of Arm’s Length Bodies.

More information on the Public Bodies Review Programme can be found here.

CHICAGO, Dec. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group Inc. will announce earnings for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 before the markets open on Wednesday, February 4, 2026. Written highlights for the quarter will be posted on the company’s website at 6:00 a.m. Central Time, the same time it provides its earnings press release. The company will also hold an investor conference call that day at 7:30 a.m. Central Time, at which time company executives will take analysts’ questions. 

A live audio Webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the company’s website. Following the conference call, an archived recording will be available at the same site. Those wishing to listen to the live conference via telephone should dial 877-918-3040 if calling from within the United States, or +1 312-470-7282 if calling from outside the United States, at least 10 minutes before the call begins. The participant passcode for both telephone numbers is 1944793.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (“S&P DJI”). “S&P®”, “S&P 500®”, “SPY®”, “SPX®”, US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group

Release date 17 December 2025

• Memorandum of Understanding agreed to enable and encourage knowledge sharing, and improve best practice
• NDA’s extensive experience will support the decommissioning of UKAEA’s Joint European Torus (JET) with the development and implementation of safe, compliant, and efficient waste strategies, and with planning for decommissioning JET’s auxiliary buildings at Culham Campus
• Solutions that are developed for UKAEA’s unique challenges related to JET may have potential to be applied at NDA sites

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) have signed a formal agreement to share their knowledge and expertise, advancing the delivery of major decommissioning programmes.

The NDA is responsible for decommissioning the UK’s 17 earliest nuclear sites – one of the largest and most complex nuclear decommissioning and remediation programmes in Europe.

UKAEA’s decommissioning of the Joint European Torus (JET) will contribute invaluable insights to the development of future commercial fusion power plants and the planning of their whole lifecycle.

By embedding learnings from the NDA, the JET Decommissioning and Repurposing (JDR) team will be able to fast-track efficiencies and best practice into its planning and delivery processes.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalises a working relationship between the two organisations which has existed for several years and reflects the number of shared challenges faced across the fusion and nuclear sectors.

Both UKAEA and NDA collaborate as partners through RAICo (the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration) and, ahead of the transition from plasma operations into shutdown, the JDR team sought advice from their NDA counterparts in areas such as waste disposal routes, processing facilities, and regulations.

Meanwhile, technologies and techniques which are developed for JET’s unique circumstances may be adaptable for use in relevant parts of the NDA estate.

Zac Scott, Director of JET Decommissioning and Repurposing Programme at UKAEA:

“JDR is a world-leading programme in the fusion sector, but many of the issues we are facing are common in decommissioning. It is therefore important for the team at UKAEA to learn as we move into the next few years of delivery.

“Over the last year we have visited a number of NDA sites and met the teams delivering decommissioning across the country. Formalising our relationship with the NDA will help us to leverage their extensive knowledge and experience, along with research and development capabilities.

“At the same time, we will be able to share the lessons and solutions we have engineered for our own challenges which could be applied in the NDA estate. We certainly believe that this is a beneficial agreement for all stakeholders.”

Clive Nixon, NDA Group Chief Nuclear Strategy Officer:

“The NDA group are at the forefront of nuclear decommissioning, we have one of the most experienced and skilled nuclear workforces in the world, developing pioneering solutions which have applications across the nuclear sector and beyond.

“The environment we work in is uniquely complex, so collaborating with UKAEA is extremely beneficial in terms of sharing expertise and knowledge to overcome some of the shared challenges we face.   

“This agreement will enable us to build on the positive work we’ve done together to date to realise additional benefits including increased efficiencies for the taxpayer and accelerating delivery of our mission.”

The UAE has introduced coordinated amendments focusing on the legislative changes covering the corporate tax, value added tax (VAT), and the Commercial companies law.  

These amendments are aimed to simplify operations, modernise the business environment and strengthen the country’s business friendly framework, aligning companies and providing them a clear guidance on taxation.  

Corporate tax amendments 

The corporate tax amendments clarify a detailed guidance on calculating and settling tax liabilities when credits, incentives, or reliefs apply.  

Liabilities will be settled in a specific order: first, withholding tax credits; then, foreign tax credits; followed by any other Cabinet approved incentives or reliefs.

The amendments are a part of a broader 2025 corporate tax overhaul that also brings the regime in line with OECD Pillar.  

Taxpayers are also allowed to claim payments for unused tax credits, provided they adhere to specified timelines and procedures.  

VAT law

On the VAT side, Federal Decree Law No. 16 of 2025, effective from January 1, 2026, simplifies tax procedures maintaining and getting in compliance with global standards.  

Among other measures, the reforms simplify procedures by removing the requirement for self-invoicing under the reverse charge mechanism (where supporting documentation exists) and introduce a five‑year time limit for recovering excess refundable VAT.​

These measures remove previous uncertainties and ensure consistent and transparent application of the corporate tax framework, which applies a standard 9 percent rate to companies with profits above Dh375,000 ($102,110), while profits below this threshold remain tax free.

Businesses will no longer need to issue self-invoices under the reverse charge mechanism if supporting documentation is kept.

Companies law

The amendment expands flexibility and competitiveness in the corporate structures. The law introduces the non-profit company, allowing organizations to reinvest net profits to achieve their objectives without distributing profits to shareholders.

It helps the users to solve complex problems, including the rights of voting , redemption, as outlined in a company’s articles of incorporation or bylaws.