The 2023 mutuals asset-lock Act still has no commencement regulations

The Co-operatives, Mutuals and Friendly Societies Act 2023 (Royal Assent June 2023) empowers HM Treasury to make regulations letting societies adopt statutory asset locks against demutualisation. Nearly three years on, the statutory instrument has not been made, reportedly because of unresolved questions about mutuals' tax liability (Commons Library, 2025). Mutuo and the APPG for Mutuals champion the Act, and the December 2025 regulator growth package did not resolve it, so the flagship anti-demutualisation tool remains unusable.

Without a lock, capital built by generations of members can be extracted in a demutualisation windfall, the mechanism that destroyed most UK building societies after 1986. Founders choosing a structure today cannot credibly commit assets to perpetual community purpose, deterring formation and patient capital.

HM Treasury/HMRC publishing the blocking tax analysis and laying the commencement regulations, with FCA registration guidance and model rule amendments, a named deliverable with a date in the government's mutuals strategy.

// State-led: Instrument: HM Treasury/HMRC commencement regulations plus published tax analysis; nothing outsiders can ship.

The enabling Act is already law, so laying the outstanding statutory instrument is a switch-on task, but Treasury owns it and no dated deadline forces movement.