“Wow! Latest register of MPs’ interests shows Boris Johnson earned – *opens calculator* – £161,149 (and 74p) for just TWO speeches last month, one in London and one in Delhi.”
Nice work if you can get it … second speech in the UK paid somewhat less!
Category Archives: Sleaze
“Tories resisting efforts to allow scrutiny of secretive trusts, says Labour”
“The UK government has been accused of thwarting Europe-wide efforts to combat money laundering and terrorism by resisting measures to open secretive trusts to public scrutiny.
Under Europe’s fifth anti-money laundering directive, which comes into force next year, member states are supposed to give those with a “legitimate interest” a right to know what assets are owned by trusts and who the beneficiaries are. The Treasury is currently consulting on how it will implement the directive.
Labour says the government’s proposals, published this month, are “extremely restrictive” and will block enquiries by those who should have access to the data, such as journalists, campaigners and the victims of fraud.
Shadow Treasury minister Anneliese Dodds wrote to Philip Hammond on Thursday to urge a rethink. “Investigative journalists have done great work uncovering corruption,” she told the chancellor. “The UK government should not be blocking them from accessing important information.”
In the UK, vast tracts of land and property are controlled and passed from one generation to another using thousands of family trusts. They are used by the biggest landowning families, such as the Duke of Westminster, and by a number of current and former ministers to hold family fortunes. Investigations like the Laundromat series and the Panama Papers have revealed how such vehicles are also used to move and disguise fortunes derived from crime and the proceeds of political corruption.
Trusts are a favoured money-laundering tool because of the secrecy that surrounds them. There is currently no public register listing the names, beneficiaries or holdings of any UK trusts, but the new EU directive is designed to change this.
The tax office currently keeps a register of all trusts that pay UK tax. The new directive means that register will be expanded to cover all trusts, whether they pay tax or not. It will include those with UK resident beneficiaries, settlors or trustees, and foreign trusts that own property in the UK or have business dealings here.
The information will be accessible to law enforcement, to professionals with a duty to make money-laundering checks, such as lawyers, accountants and estate agents, but also, for the first time, to members of the public with a good reason for accessing the information.
However, the government’s consultation paper makes it clear that the Treasury is minded to take a cautious approach to information sharing. Those wanting access will need to already have evidence from another source linking the trust or its beneficiary to money-laundering or terrorism, and that evidence will have to be shared with the government.
Even then, the government reserves the right to refuse to share data if it impedes ongoing law enforcement investigations. Unlike freedom of information requests, the government intends to charge for access to the data. Its consultation paper suggests the charges could be significant, stating: “The government expects to apply fees proportionate to the costs involved in checking and compiling the information.” …”
“Housebuilder Persimmon faces new investor revolt over ‘highly excessive’ pay”
“Housebuilder Persimmon is braced for a fresh revolt over its controversial bonuses after shareholder advisers urged investors to vote against the company’s ‘highly excessive’ pay.
Advisory group PIRC has instructed investors to oppose the pay report for a second year running at the annual meeting early next month.
Last year, the FTSE 100 company narrowly escaped defeat over its bonus scheme for top bosses, but still suffered a major rebellion.
The scheme included a bonus worth more than £100million for former boss Jeff Fairburn that was trimmed to around £75million after a public backlash. The bonus pot was boosted by the taxpayer-funded Help to Buy scheme.
Persimmon, led by new chairman Roger Devlin, has attempted to draw a line under the scandal by trimming the overall payouts, ousting Fairburn, ensuring that all staff are paid more than the living wage, and making steps towards improving the quality of its homes.
Two other advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS have both backed changes made by Devlin.
A Persimmon spokesman said the company understood ‘the need for pay restraint and spent 2018 working to ensure Persimmon’s future remuneration is clearly aligned with best practice’.”
British Gas shares plummet – CEO’s salary soars
“The boss of Centrica [formerly British Gas] is fighting for his job as investors lose faith in his leadership.
Iain Conn has been chief executive of the British Gas owner since 2015 – picking up £11.1 million in pay along the way.
But the FTSE 100 group’s shares have tumbled 60 per cent on his watch and are at their lowest level since 1999.
The father-of-three’s position is seen as particularly vulnerable since the arrival of Charles Berry, who succeeded Rick Haythornthwaite as chairman in February. …
Conn has also attracted the ire of retail investors who have seen the value of their savings plummet from 279p a share when he took over in 2015 to 109.05p at the close of business yesterday.
The slump has slashed Centrica’s value from £15.9 billion to £6.2 billion.
The backlash among shareholders comes a week after it emerged that Conn, 56, enjoyed a 44 per cent pay rise to £2.4million in 2018.
The rise of £740,000 covered a year when British Gas hiked bills for millions of families and saw 742,000 customers leave. …
Centrica this month announced another 500 jobs are at risk – 400 of which are based in Glasgow –- as part of the company’s plan to cut 2,000 jobs this year. It has axed 7,700 jobs since 2015.
Centrica declined to comment last night. …”
Major companies could escape “double check” audit
Owl has just one question – why?
“Britain’s competition watchdog is drawing up plans to exclude some major companies from a controversial new rule that would require many businesses to appoint joint auditors.
Sky News has learnt that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been weighing whether to offer an exemption as part of its heavily scrutinised inquiry into the audit market.
The CMA is expected to publish its final report this week, but has been stung by a backlash from corporate Britain to proposals outlined in December that would force FTSE-100 companies to employ two audit firms.
Sources close to the regulator’s probe say it has floated the idea of offering a “carve-out” from the joint audit rule for “the biggest, most complex companies”.
That could apply to banks such as HSBC Holdings and oil companies including BP and Royal Dutch Shell.
One insider said a crude market capitalisation threshold could apply, with companies worth more than a certain threshold allowed to continue with a single auditor.
The workability of this idea was dismissed by corporate chiefs, however, given the potential impact on companies crossing such a threshold in either direction or on multiple occasions.
It was unclear this weekend whether the exemption would be included in the CMA’s final report, although one source close to the government said the watchdog had appeared to be determined to press ahead with it several weeks ago.
The CMA is also expected to push for a more robust separation of the big four’s audit and non-audit practices than it floated in its preliminary report four months ago.
Its inquiry was launched at the behest of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in the wake of anger about the role of auditors in major corporate scandals at BHS and Carillion.
Accountants have also faced probes into their work on the books of companies such as BT Group, the Co-operative Bank, Ted Baker and Patisserie Holdings. …
https://news.sky.com/story/watchdog-may-exempt-biggest-firms-from-joint-audit-rule-11693962
Boris is SO forgetful – not a good trait in a potential leader!
“Boris Johnson has breached House of Commons rules by failing to declare a financial interest in a property within the required time limit, the Commons standards committee has found.
According to the watchdog, the former foreign secretary registered an interest of a 20 per cent share of the Somerset property in January 2019, despite being notified of his acquisition a year ago – way outside the 28-day time limit.
It follows Mr Johnson’s previous apology to the committee just four months’ ago after breaching rules on declared earnings for his book royalties.
In a second damning report, the standards committee claimed the Conservative MP demonstrated “an over-casual attitude towards obeying the rules of the House”.
Now, the committee has instructed Mr Johnson to meet with the registrar of members’ financial interests in person to receive a full briefing on his obligations as a MP to register all relevant interests.”
Property developer sponsors Tory conference – The beneficiaries of Help-to-Buy have put their name around party members’ necks.
“The housing crisis has become a central issue in British politics, with a shortage of social housing forcing millions into expensive, shabby private rentals; locking a generation out of home ownership; and causing a massive increase in street homelessness.
Help to Buy, a government-backed loan to supplement mortgages for first-time buyers, remains the Conservatives’ biggest housing intervention. But it sucks.
Even the Tory press thinks it’s rubbish. Last month, the Daily Mail’s Money Editor wrote that Help to Buy was a “flawed plan” that “would bump up house prices, boost builders’ profits and increase debt”. In the same month, the normally Tory-supporting Times analysed the Help to Buy figures and argued that “while it has boosted profits for house builders, it has failed to provide the greater supply of new homes that is needed”. The Times worried that even those lucky enough to get a Help to Buy house might now be stuck in “negative equity”, with “young people … being left in overpriced homes that they will struggle to sell”.
For its part, the solidly Tory Sun also worries that sticking with Help to Buy and failing to offer something to increasingly angry private renters could cost the Tories the next election.
So why is the government so keen on the scheme? The answer could literally be around the necks of delegates at this year’s Tory conference. The Conservative party sells advertising space, charging corporations to brand the lanyards that house the security passes conference attendees must wear at all times inside the Conference “secure zone”. Lanyards for this year’s Conservative Conference in Birmingham bear the name “Thakeham Homes”, a property developer making profits with help from Help to Buy.
Thakeham Homes is a Sussex-based residential property developer with an extensive “landbank” throughout the Home Counties. According to its latest accounts, Thakeham believes it is doing well because of “low interest rates and increased demand from first time buyers, supported by Help to Buy”.
In 2018, Thakeham’s turnover jumped 64 percent, to around £30 million. The company’s profits jumped from £100,000 to £4 million. The firm says that Help to Buy helped it boost its business; according to the accounts, “the adaptation of our planning strategy to increase the percentage of Help to Buy eligible properties within our schemes has yielded an increased sales rate and has enabled our resilience in light of the effects of Brexit on the wider market”.
Thakeham says it is “encouraged by continued political support” for Help to Buy, and seems to be encouraging that “continued political support” by giving the governing party cash. According to Conservative Party sales brochures, Lanyard Sponsorship costs around £16,500 (2016 brochure).
Thakeham’s sponsorship extends beyond lanyards. Thakeham Homes began donating to the Tories in 2017 and have now given £107,00 in total.
I asked Thakeham if its Conservative donations were a way of encouraging continued government support for Help to Buy. Their spokesperson: “Yes, we do donate to the Conservative Party and we think it is important as over 50 percent of our construction is for public sector partners. Thakeham contract builds for housing associations and local councils; placemaking and seeking to enhance and create new communities.”
He added: “The amount of product we sell via Help to Buy is small in proportion when compared to our contract build for housing associations and local councils for whom we deliver affordable homes.”
Help to Buy was introduced by Chancellor George Osborne in 2013. It offers a zero-interest loan to buyers of new-build houses costing up to £600,000. Loans are worth up to 20 percent of the cost. The Treasury has loaned a whopping £7 billion on the scheme – that’s a massive and much-criticised intervention in the market.
The criticisms will continue to be made – even from those sympathetic to the Tories. But money also talks. Thakeham is not the only firm benefitting from the multi-billion scheme who in turn give the Conservative Party cash.
In 2015, companies owned by businessman John Bloor started donating to the Tories. Bloor’s firms have since donated £1 million, and Bloor has attended Tory dinners with Theresa May, Philip Hammond and other ministers. Most of Bloor’s money comes from his housebuilding firm, Bloor Homes. According to its latest company accounts, Bloor Homes’ turnover is up 27 percent to £917 million. Profits have leapt by 58 percent, to £152 million. The average price of each Bloor home sold has increased from £275,000 to £300,000 in a year.
The accounts explain this performance by saying “the housing market has been strong” thanks to “the government backed Help to Buy scheme”.
I asked John Bloor Homes if the Bloor donations were a way of encouraging continuation of the Help to Buy scheme. A spokesperson said: “Bloor Homes continues to provide, via various tenure and financial structures, much needed housing from social rent all the way through to private ownership, driven by clear demographic and affordability demands.”
There are also jobs for Tories in Help to Buy firms. Since 2016, Angela Knight has been a director of housing firm Taylor Wimpey. She is paid £60,000 a year for this part-time “Non-Executive” job on the board. Knight was a former Conservative minister who is still “in” with top Tories. In fact, George Osborne – who launched Help to Buy – also gave Knight a job at the Treasury, which runs the scheme. Knight is currently the Treasury’s “Chair of the Office for Tax Simplification”. According to Taylor Wimpey’s accounts, the firm made £589 million in profit this year, with around 39 percent of sales relying on Help to Buy.
If the Sun is right, backing Help to Buy instead of investing in more social homes and regulating rents could sink the Tories, as voters hurt by the housing crisis desert the party. But the donations from Help to Buy-backed companies – not to mention the post-ministerial jobs they offer – might encourage them to stick with the scheme.
@SolHughesWriter”
Cops called three times to Police Commissioner Hernandez’s party
“A police chief’s cosy housewarming party went disastrously wrong after her boyfriend and new neighbours ended up having a furious row over parking in the early hours of the morning.
Alison Hernandez, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, has been left picking up the pieces after three complaints were made to the local force against her partner, Lucius Gray.
Ms Hernandez, 45, who made the headlines last year when she suggested that gun owners could help foil terror attacks, had only been in her new home three weeks when tempers flared.
She gave out Prosecco and pot-plants to try and smooth things over, but her efforts were angrily dismissed as ‘political damage limitation’ by neighbours.
They insist Mr Gray, a formerly homeless aspiring Tory councillor, has been ‘abusive, obnoxious, rude and threatening’, while he says they are trying to scupper his chances of election in a crunch local vote in May.
The fracas occurred on Saturday night when Ms Hernandez and Mr Gray, 44, hosted a dinner party for two fellow Conservative couples in a sleepy suburb of Torquay.
They served salmon and cheesecake followed by cheese and biscuits, washed down with ‘several bottles’ of wine.
One of the guests, the leader of the Tory Councillors, David Thomas, 55, parked his silver Jaguar in a space that belonged to a neighbour, 70-year-old Alan Binding.
When Mr Binding came home, he retaliated by parking his car across the driveway, blocking all the vehicles in.
‘I was not a happy bunny,’ he told MailOnline. ‘I own that parking space. I should be able to park in it any time I feel like it.’
At 1:30am, when the dinner party was over, Mr Gray – who admitted he had ‘had a few drinks’ but denied being drunk – went with teetotal Mr Thomas to find the culprit.
According to neighbours, he started banging on windows and doors before using a key to gain access to a private hallway, where he rang on a number of doorbells.
This provoked a heated exchange with a younger couple who had been woken up, despite having nothing to do with the dispute.
‘He banged on our window and rang our doorbell in the middle of the night,’ said the neighbour, who did not want to be named.
‘He then used piggish language and was really rude and threatening to my girlfriend.
‘The fact that he’s a Tory candidate makes my blood boil. If you want a woman’s vote, you don’t speak to her like that.’
Mr Gray denied he was abusive and blamed the couple for ‘over-reacting’.
‘The lady launched into an unbelievable tirade which was completely inappropriate,’ he said. ‘We were trying to establish who owned the car. When it became clear that the car wasn’t hers, we tried to apologise and left. But she was apoplectic.
‘It’s not true that I was aggressive. I’m six-foot-three. I may I seem instantly intimidating, but I can hardly be blamed for being tall. It was absurd.’
When the two Tories established that Mr Binding was the owner of the car instead, a second argument then broke out on the landing with the pensioner.
‘Mr Gray really wound me up,’ Mr Binding said. ‘It was 1:30am and he was being arrogant and aggressive. He said, “do you know who these people are? They’re Tory councillors”.
‘He seemed to think I should bow down to them, when they had no right to be there.’
Mr Gray, who was made homeless by his parents at the age of 16 and was brought up in supported care, said he was being stigmatised because of his ‘tough’ background.
“I do feel this is very politically motivated, to rubbish my part in the campaign. If people like me who have had tough experiences are treated like this, it’s no surprise that we don’t want to get involved in politics.’
The neighbours insisted that they neither belonged to political parties or had any special interest in politics.
One added: ‘Alison is supposed to be the pinnacle of integrity. She hires and fires the Chief Constable. She holds very high office and is an elected representative.
‘Yet she is going out with a man who wakes up pensioners in the small hours and kicks off at them. Torbay people would be disgusted. She has to be held accountable.’
The day after the altercation, Ms Hernandez delivered handwritten apology cards, accompanied by bottles of Prosecco and pot-plants, but to no avail.
‘I feel quite persecuted, really, and targeted,’ she told MailOnline. ‘My neighbours are using a petty argument for political purposes. It’s absolutely pathetic.’
Neighbours revealed this was the second confrontation with Mr Gray since Ms Hernandez moved in.
On the first occasion, Mr Gray took a neighbour by surprise when he entered the private property after dark via a back gate and was allegedly ‘abusive and intimidating’ when asked to identify himself.
Mr Gray acknowledged he had ‘reacted inappropriately’, but said there had been bad behaviour on both sides and the matter was now closed.
This is not the first time that Ms Hernandez herself has been mired in controversy.
She made the headlines last year when she suggested that gun owners could help foil terror attacks, something that police chiefs dismissed out of hand.
In February, the road safety specialist – who lobbied the Government to raise the cost of speeding tickets – was slapped with a speeding fine and a parking ticket in two days.
Last year, her former partner received a 15-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, for assaulting and then stalking her when she ended the relationship.”
“Tories cling on to tax exiles’ right to vote for life despite bill delay”
“The government has said it remains committed to passing a law that could allow tax exiles the right to vote and donate to political parties for life, after it failed to pass through the House of Commons.
MPs, including the serial filibusterer Philip Davies, tabled dozens of amendments to the overseas electors bill for debate on Friday, resulting in it being dropped after parliamentary time to discuss it ran out.
Under current law, British expatriates can remain on the electoral roll, allowing them to vote and make donations, for 15 years after they leave the UK. The overseas electors bill proposed removing the time limit, giving all expats the right to vote and donate for life.
Speaking on behalf of the government, the cabinet office minister Chloe Smith told the House: “The government remains committed to scrapping the cap.” The Conservative party pledged to bring in the law in its 2017 manifesto.
Anti-corruption campaigners and Labour MPs had expressed alarm at the bill. Margaret Hodge, the former chair of parliament’s public accounts committee, described the bill as “shocking” and warned it would “increase tax haven billionaires’ influence and allow dirty money donations to political parties”.”
You are classed as “employed” if you work ONE HOUR A WEEK!
No wonder employment figures look good!
“BBC Reality Check asked the Office for National Statistics (ONS) whether working just one hour a week was all that was needed to be officially classified as employed?
The ONS confirmed that was the case.
Every three months, a large survey (known as the Labour Force Survey) is sent to approximately 90,000 people, selected at random. The ONS extrapolates the findings to produce employment bulletins.
Those selected to take part in the LFS are interviewed every three months for fifteen months before they drop out of the sample. Interviews are initially done face-to-face and follow-up ones are done by phone. The one exception is the north of Scotland where all interviews are done over the phone because of the distance involved.
A person will need to have worked at least one hour in the week before the interview with the ONS takes place to be classified as employed. …”
Seaton Lib Dem Councillor ‘censors’ councillor publicising bus consultation
Astounding that something as neutral (and important) as a consultation on changes to major bus routes to and from Seaton should be censored. And even a pitiful and low-bar excuse of a ‘political post’ (assuming that is the reason) doesn’t hold water as Councillor Shaw is not up for re-election until 2022!
Councillor Burrows, in the other hand, IS up for re-election on 2 May 2019 – even though he had to resign as Mayor, admitted that he had brought the town council into disrepute AND was censured by EDDC – if the Lib Dems can’t find a better candidate! If they can’t, it really doesn’t say much for the quality of their current membership in Seaton!
From the blog of Seaton and Colyton East Devon Alliance DCC Councillor Martin Shaw:
“Seaton EDDC and town councillor Peter Burrows (pictured in his Facebook logo with the late Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown) resigned as mayor in January after self-confessedly ‘bringing the town council into disrepute’ after abusing a ‘Tourist Information Centre’ Twitter account to pursue a personal grudge.
Now, in the very week in which East Devon’s Monitoring Officer has formally censured him on four counts, Burrows and his co-administrator, Tony Antoniou, have abused their positions as admins on a community Facebook group to remove me from the group, as I found when I tried to post details of the Stagecoach bus consultation to the group, to which I’ve belonged for years. No warning was given and neither has responded to requests for an explanation.
This example of arbitrary censorship raises two fingers to Town Council recommendations – in response to Burrows’ January actions and expected to be adopted in two weeks’ time – that councillors should ‘behave responsibly, considerately and professionally’ on social media and should NOT be Facebook admins.
It is laughable for Burrows to call himself a Liberal Democrat. This self-appointed Town Censor has no respect for the idea that a community Facebook group – the group in question is called Positive Development for Everyone in Seaton and was set up after a community meeting – should be open to a County Councillor to post important local information, and indeed for members to express views different from the admins’.
There is a long history of Burrows arbitrarily removing people and posts from different Facebook groups. I have considerable respect for the Liberal Democrats – their members on the County Council are fine councillors and I work with them closely – but Burrows is bringing his party into disrepute. I am reporting him to their regional organisation for his latest antics.”
No anti-corruption move on property ownership since promised in 2016
“More than £100bn of property in England and Wales is secretly owned, new analysis suggests. More than 87,000 properties are owned by anonymous companies registered in tax havens, research by the transparency group Global Witness reveals.
The analysis reveals that 40% of the properties are in London. Cadogan Square in Knightsbridge, where the average property costs £3m, hosts at least 134 secretly owned properties. Buckingham Palace Road is also home to a large number, with a combined estimated value of £350m.
The revelation comes as parliament’s joint select committee on the draft registration of overseas entities bill meets on Monday to hear evidence on the impact of property ownership by anonymous companies.
The government committed to introduce a register of UK property owners at its anti-corruption summit in 2016, but since then progress has been slow.
“It’s increasingly clear that UK property is one of the favourite tools of the criminal and corrupt for stashing and laundering stolen cash,” said Ava Lee, senior anti-corruption campaigner at Global Witness.
“This analysis reveals the alarming scale of the UK’s secret property scandal.”
The combined value of the properties was at least £56bn, according to historical Land Registry data at the time of their acquisition. Once inflation is factored in this would exceed £100bn.
Some 10,000 of the properties are in Westminster, while almost 6,000 are in Kensington and Chelsea. Camden is home to more than 2,300 of the anonymously owned properties while almost 2,000 are in Tower Hamlets.
Global Witness says its investigations have shown how criminals and corrupt politicians use the UK property market to hide or clean dirty cash, and to secure safe havens for themselves and their families.
In 2015 it revealed how the mystery owner of a £147m London property empire owned via a network of offshore companies could be linked to a former Kazakh secret police chief accused of murder, torture and money-laundering.”
“Right to Buy homes re-sold since 2000 made £6.4bn in profit” (many sold within 6 weeks)
Proof that the destruction of social housing is a Conservative policy.
“A former council tenant bought their home under Right to Buy for £8,000 and sold it on for £285,000 nine days later – a £277,000 profit, the BBC found.
The Solihull buyer was among 140 in Great Britain who bought and resold within one month, making a £3m collective profit.
Opponents of the scheme said too many people had profited from a policy that had “much bigger social ambitions”.
Supporters said Right to Buy helped people secure their financial future.
The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) said it was “shocking to see the extent of the profit margin in black and white”.
It called for the scheme to be suspended in England. In January it was halted in Wales, as it was in Scotland in 2016.
Housing commentator Henry Pryor said: “Far too many… simply profited from a scheme that had much bigger social ambitions”. …”
“Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘has earned £7,000,000 from investments since Brexit’
Isn’t the (dormant) company that Swire owns with his Russian oligarch-serving pal Lord Barker set up to invest in “emerging markets”?
Wouldn’t it be super if profits MPs made while in Parliament had to go to their constituencies!
“The rest of Britain might be fretting about the impact of a no-deal Brexit, but leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg is doing very nicely, thanks. An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches found that the Conservative MP could have earned up to £7,000,000 from Somerset Capital Managment, which invests in emerging markets such as China and Russsia. In the programme, one expert suggests that the fall in the value of the pound has helped to drive SCM’s profits – but Rees-Mogg dismissed such claims as ‘living in cloud cuckoo land’.
Rees-Mogg refused to disclose his earnings from the firm, of which he owns 15% and which he set up in 2007. Records show that its profits have doubled and it has paid £47m to members since the referendum. Rees-Mogg told Dispatches, ‘The amount that I received is not for public disclosure. I’m entitled to the same privacy in my affairs as anyone else in parliament is.
Mr Rees-Mogg declares in his House of Commons Register of Interests that he is paid £500 an hour for his work at SCM and takes home around £15,000 a month on top of his MPs salary. SCM invests in emerging markets like China and Russia and one expert said that the fall in the value of the pound since the referendum result has helped SCM’s profits. Rees-Mogg also rejected claims that SCM’s decision in the past year to open two new funds in Dublin rather than London had anything to with Brexit.
Our decision to do it predates Brexit,’ he told the programme. Dispatches also revealed how some hedge funds have built up huge bets against British business and hoping to make big profits if the economy hits the rocks after Brexit.
Dispatches reveals that the US investment firm Blackrock holds the most bets against British business totalling more than £1bn. The hedge fund run by leading Brexiteer Crispin Odey is betting almost £500m against British businesses. Odey made more than £200m on the night of the referendum by betting that the value of the pound would plummet.”
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/11/jacob-rees-mogg-earned-7000000-investments-since-brexit-8884678/
No Brexit problems for Rees-Mogg
“Profits in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s investment empire are soaring and more than doubled in the last four years, a TV investigation will show tomorrow.
A Channel 4 Dispatches programme will highlight the surging fortunes of Somerset Capital Management LLP, a firm co-founded and co-owned by the Tory hard Brexiteer.
SCM’s publicly-available accounts show its operating profit rose from £14.7m in the year to March 2015, to £18.3m in 2016, £27.8m in 2017 and £34.1m in 2018.
Meanwhile the profits available for distribution among members have risen from £11.5m in 2015 to £14.4m in 2016, £21.9m in 2017 and £25.3m in 2018. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/profits-jacob-rees-moggs-investment-14114954
Government pulls bill which would have uncovered money launderers
“Ministers have pulled a financial services bill from the House of Commons, fearing the government was almost certain to be defeated on an amendment requiring Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man to clamp down on money laundering.
The Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell and Labour’s Margaret Hodge want the crown dependencies to introduce public share ownership records by December 2020, which the three territories are resisting.
Mitchell said the government had pulled the bill “in face of certain defeat” because it was backed by a group of rebel Tories as well as Labour and the other opposition parties. But the former cabinet minister added that the amendment would be put to the vote whenever the bill was resubmitted.
Hodge said the government had taken an “outrageous step” to pull the bill because “they knew we commanded a majority. I hope the government will accept our proposals but if not we will continue to campaign for public registers.”
Anti-corruption campaigners believe public records of share ownership would restrict the use of anonymous offshore companies by terrorists, dictators, corrupt politicians and criminals. …”
Work for HS2 and enjoy parties and gym membership!
“HS2 Ltd has been accused of wasting “eye-watering” sums of taxpayers’ money as it emerged that the government-owned company spent almost £54,000 on gym memberships and £6,360 hiring party photo booths.
The spending by the company building the high-speed rail line was revealed in official financial returns. Analysis showed that £640,000 was spent on aerial promotional films and £96,712 went on an HS2 “pop-up shop” at Euston station.
The Times previously revealed that HS2’s total spending reached £5.5 billion even before full construction of the line has started. The equivalent of one-tenth of the project’s entire £55.7 billion budget has been spent in the last nine years as part of preparations for Europe’s biggest infrastructure project.
The latest figures prompted fresh accusations that spending on the scheme was out of control.
HS2 will eventually link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with the Y-shaped network due to open fully by 2033. The first phase of the line between London and Birmingham is expected be completed in 2026, with extensive work already under way.
An HS2 Ltd spokeswoman said: “HS2 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform Britain’s economy and we are committed to delivering value for money for the taxpayer. We have a duty to inform and consult people and communities affected by a project of this size.”
Penny Gaines, chairwoman of the Stop HS2 group, said: “These figures show the eye -watering scale of expenditure. This spending is funded entirely from the taxpayer. If it hadn’t gone on HS2 it could have been used for other priorities, such as schools or the NHS.”
Source: Times (pay wall)
“Help-to-buy scheme pushes housebuilder dividends to £2.3bn”
“Britain’s biggest housebuilders paid out £2.3bn in dividends in their most recent financial year, as the help-to-buy subsidy pumped up their profits and house prices.
The nine biggest housebuilders listed on the London Stock Exchange declared the dividend payouts in their last full financial years, according to an analysis by AJ Bell, an investment platform.
Help to buy, introduced in 2013 and recently extended until 2023 for first-time buyers, was one of the flagship policies of the coalition government. Former Conservative chancellor George Osborne hoped to boost home ownership among young people, as house price growth far outpaced wage growth.
However, many economists believe the scheme boosted house prices without making a significant impact on the supply of new houses, enabling a profits bonanza for Britain’s biggest housebuilders and their shareholders.
In 2012, the final full year before the help-to-buy scheme was introduced, the top nine firms – many of which had been battered by the financial crash – paid dividends of only £57.7m, according to AJ Bell. Dividends declared in the companies’ most recent financial year were about 39 times greater.
Since 2013 the nine housebuilders have paid out nearly £8bn in dividends, while City analysts forecast another £5.2bn in payouts in 2019 and 2020. Furthermore, shareholders have also enjoyed appreciation in housebuilders’ share prices, which have been sustained by the promise of further profits.
Persimmon, half of whose sales were part of help to buy, was responsible for 2018’s largest giveaway. Its shareholders collectively earned £732m in dividends in the year ending in December, after the company earned more than £1bn in profits.
Taylor Wimpey declared dividends of slightly less than £500m during the same period. Barratt Developments declared £435m in the year ending in June 2018. Bellway, Berkeley Group and Bovis all declared dividends of more than £120m in their last full financial year.
The large profits of housebuilders have attracted heavy criticism, amid a continued housing crisis and rising homelessness. Persimmon’s former chief executive, Jeff Fairburn, resigned in November following public fury over his £75m bonus, which had been scaled back from £110m after investor outrage. …”
“Tory councillors give themselves 300% pay hikes in homelessness hotspot”
“Tory councillors have awarded themselves pay rises of more than 300% in an area blighted by homelessness and food banks.
Matt Dormer, the Conservative leader of Redditch Borough Council agreed to a whopping 150% pay rise for himself.
And councillors with special responsibilities will get an extra £5,000 – a staggering 326% pay increase.
The Tories took control of the council last May and are in charge of their own pay for the first time in years.
Labour had previously frozen pay for a decade and its councillors voted against the new rises.
One said: “At the first opportunity these greedy ***** have taken money from council tax to put in their own, in some case already fat, wallets.”
Another councillor was so horrified she wheeled a trolley into the council chamber containing items destined for a food bank.
A source said: “It was a way of pointing out the absurdity of giving themselves more cash when there are people literally starving.” …
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-councillors-give-themselves-300-14065345
Another construction greed and sleaze scandal
“Bosses at Britain’s largest private construction business enjoyed a sharp rise in payouts last year despite ongoing losses and a bumpy refinancing that forced it to file its accounts months after the legal deadline.
Five directors at Laing O’Rourke, which has worked on major projects such as Crossrail and Heathrow Terminal 5, were paid £3.4m in salaries and short-term incentives in the year to March 2018, compared with just £1.6m in the previous 12 months.
The accounts were due to be filed in September but auditors refused to sign off on the company as a going concern until it refinanced £177m of debt in its UK business. …”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/02/24/bumper-pay-day-bosses-loss-making-laing-orourke/
East Devon Watch 