If a couple were to split having recently moved into a new house and purchased several expensive items of furniture, who retains possession of them if things were to become acrimonious?

A colleague has recently purchased over £4k of new furniture with his partner and unfortunately things are looking as though they will split in the very near future. As he has chosen to finance the bulk of the furniture and all receipts and correspondence from teh companies in question are in his name, is there a chance that she could walk away with them despite his offers of repaying her in full for her 40% contribution?

I only ask as I think she owns outright the majority of other household items and is claiming that she wants everything she is entitled to however, he understandably would like to hold on to what he is entitled otherwise he will be left with all financial responsibilities of the new property and nothing to furnish it with.

Having spoken to him, I feel that he is reluctant to back down on this and understandably so as he was always meant to be the sole financier in an effort to regain some balance of ownership within the relationship but could only muster 60% in the timescales allowed. As such, she assisted with the balance until such as time as he could repay her.

Please can you advise?

Many thanks