Reduction in share capital or share buy back?

Client's company has been set up with 1,000 shares of nominal value GBP10. There is one shareholder who is also the sole director.The shares have not been paid for and the amount due has currently been booked to the director's loan account. To avoid s455 issues (I am of the school of thought that s455 applies to unpaid share capital) I want to reduce the issued share capital to GBP1,000 (ie 1,000 shares of GBP10).

From other people's experiences what is the easiest way to do this and is there an issue that the company does not have distributable reserves of GBP9,000? Is there any way of changing the nominal value and would this help?

Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you.