ABSTRACT
In an article published a few years ago, this author highlighted the background, growth and possible use of Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) in the corporate restructuring sphere.1 In particular, consensual Part 1 Insolvency Act 1986 CVAs, i.e. CVAs without moratoria and used outside administration, were argued as being able to provide a cost-effective restructuring tool. In this chapter, the argument in the alternative is put that the small CVA provisions as introduced by the Insolvency Act 2000 and now represented in Schedule A1 of the Insolvency Act 1986 could be extended to large companies (i.e. those outside section 247 of the Companies Act 1985 or section 382 of the Companies Act 2006) so as to allow large company restructuring with the benefit of a moratorium without the costs associated with an accompanying Administration Order being in place. In so doing, this chapter goes some way to responding to the Conservative Party’s call for the adoption of Chapter 11 type automatic stays into English law. It is argued that instead of adopting a new form of business restructuring tool as advocated by the Conservative Party, which is largely reminiscent of the Irish Examinership model, we should instead extend the small CVA provisions (Schedule A1 of the Insolvency Act 1986) to larger companies, therefore reducing associated reform costs as well as benefiting from a reduction in associated Administration Order costs.
