By Sebastian O’Kelly Government plans leaked in The Times to force residential freehold speculators to pay to remove Grenfell cladding from private blocks are doomed to fail. The proposals would almost certainly face legal challenges. They are the latest in a series of disastrous announcements, which followed Communities Secretary James Brokenshire reneging on his predecessor […]
Search Results for: will astor
Government to ask Will Astor: who is the offshore freeholder at Heysmoor Heights (where ordinary families face £18k Grenfell cladding bills)?
The government said yesterday that it was going to haul in the agents for the Guernsey-based freeholders of Heysmoor Heights in Liverpool, which has Grenfell cladding, and demand to know who the freeholders are. LKP has highlighted the issue of Heysmoor Heights several times. Yesterday it was raised in the Commons by local Labour MP […]
Will Astor ‘tried to nobble reform of ground rents’, Daily Mail claims
The ground rent speculator – and former employee of Vincent Tchenguiz – Will Astor mounted an eleventh hour lobbying effort to derail reform of leasehold, reports the Daily Mail today. The Mail claims that the 38-year-old, who is the half brother-in-law of former prime minister David Cameron, hired London-based PR firm Pagefield through his £1.3 […]
Will Astor should come to meet leasehold house owners in Ellesmere Port
Will Astor, who manages the £1.2 billion Long Harbour fund in residential freeholds, should come to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire to meet the owners of leasehold houses, according to local Labour MP Justin Madders. Mr Madders issued the invitation at the All Party Parliamentary Group on leasehold reform on April 19. Many of the leasehold […]
‘Cameron’s brother-in-law Will Astor and the toxic leasehold scandal’, Daily Mail
With references to large houses in Oxfordshire, and a 19,000 acre shooting estate in Scotland, the Daily Mail published a characteristically no-shades-of-grey profile of ground rent investor Will Astor today. That’s leaving aside his half-sister being Samantha Cameron. “Complaints about leaseholds have been simmering for several years but are now threatening to boil over and embarrass […]
Daily Mail ‘reveals’ Will Astor’s ‘links to leasehold rip-offs’
The Daily Mail has “revealed” that Will Astor, Samantha Cameron’s half-brother, is a major investor in the leasehold game. It claims that that the 38-year-old’s Long Harbour fund has the freeholds of 160,000 homes “on behalf of institutional investors”. LKP very much doubts these investors are institutional, and draws attention to former Long Harbour billionaire […]
Some of our freehold clients are offshore, admits Will Astor’s HomeGround
Homeground, the ground rent gatherer that is part of Will Astor’s Long Harbour group, is gathering revenues for offshore owned freeholders, it admits. In a leaflet circulated to leasehold homeowners who have contacted the company, it says: “Some of our client Landlords are companies registered in England and Wales, with records available at Companies House, […]
Tchenguiz, Astor and offshore freeholders like Abacus Land 4 Limited should PUBLICLY meet over Grenfell cladding, MPs told
Sir Peter Bottomley urged government to hold a public meeting and call in Vincent Tchenguiz, William Waldorf Astor and the offshore owners of residential freeholders to resolve the Grenfell cladding issue. He told Communities Secretary Said Javid: “This week saw the first proper tribunal decision, regarding Citiscape in Croydon, which is owned by the Tchenguiz […]
‘Gargantuan’ Grenfell cladding bills from Astor and Tchenguiz on sites such as New Festival Quarter, The Times reveals today
The Times today reports how leaseholders are facing “gargantuan” bills for fire marshals and Grenfell cladding removal from the likes of Vincent Tchenguiz and Will Astor. Up to a 100 private blocks of flats are affected, it claims. “The situation has echoes of a leasehold scandal this year when construction companies sold houses with ground […]
Viscount Astor hears the lamentations of leaseholders
Viscount Astor, step-father of Samantha Cameron and father of ground rent investor William Waldorf Astor, attended the All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting on leasehold reform on December 14. Sadly, he did not share his thoughts at the meeting, as he heard how unaffluent first-timer buyers are upset with doubling ground rents in Bolton. Or, how lawyers […]
Welsh Assembly evidence over Grenfell cladding costs by FPRA ‘consultant’ Cassandra Zanelli is called into question
Solicitor Cassandra Zanelli has been challenged over evidence she presented to the Welsh Assembly over who will pay to remove Grenfell cladding at private blocks of flats. Miss Zanelli, who was representing the Federation of Private Residents Associations as an “honorary consultant” at a session on September 27, told a committee of the Assembly that […]
Long Harbour lobby MP Kate Osamor bars leasehold activist from Twitter feed
Corbynite Labour MP Kate Osamor, who asked a series of parliamentary questions on behalf of residential freehold fund Long Harbour, has barred a prominent leasehold activist from her Twitter feed. Baz Jafar, a doubling ground rent leaseholder, found he was blocked from his Edmonton MP’s official Twitter feed yesterday after raising the issue of the […]
Government thinking freeholders are paternalistic long-term custodians of a building is where it has gone wrong over Grenfell cladding
Sorry, they are just speculators in it for the enforceable income By Martin Boyd Translating freeholder or landlord as “building owner” is a bad idea that has led government to make a mess of its efforts to resolve the issue of Grenfell cladding on private sites. LKP explained to both Dame Judith Hackitt and the […]
Private Eye identifies yet another murky offshore landlord, Vuillard Holdings Limited, with Grenfell cladding
“Snakes and cladders” is Private Eye’s headline revealing Vuillard Holdings Limited as the latest landlord with Grenfell cladding on site. Owned by shy proprietors David and Patrick Kennedy, it owns the freehold of Victoria Wharf, two sites Limehouse in East London, where leaseholders have so far “been forced” to pay £165,000 for fire wardens. LKP […]
Don’t buy leasehold, says Merryn Somerset Webb of Money Week, but …
This is robust advice from the financial journalist Merryn Somerset Webb and it’s not wrong, but … Some people have to live in flats, which are (quite unnecessarily) sold as leasehold in England and Wales: the poor, the single, those seeking to live in the centre of cities. Commonhold is a perfectly sensible alternative. In […]
20,000 leaseholders trapped in blocks with Grenfell cladding, says Telegraph
The Grenfell cladding disaster for private flat owners got another airing last Saturday, this time in the Daily Telegraph. It claims that 143 private blocks have failed the governments fire safety tests involving 20,000 leaseholders. “The Government has said that the building’s owners have a “moral responsibility” to ensure that the bill does not fall […]
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