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You are here: Home / News / Parliament / APPG December 14 2016 / Housebuilder Bob Bessell says ‘no justification for ground rents at all’

Housebuilder Bob Bessell says ‘no justification for ground rents at all’

December 16, 2016 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Bob Bessell, retirement housebuilder, has never seen the justification of ground rents – and he is leaving his portfolio of freeholds, worth £7 million, in trust to his pensioner leaseholders

Bob Bessell, founder of retirement housebuilder Retirement Security, told the All Party Parliamentary Group that he has never charged ground rents.

His company, based in Stratford on Avon and founded in 1985, has built 1,600 retirement flats around the country at 30 sites.

“I started as a social worker and I had to invent things from the word go.

“We have never charged ground rents because there is no justification for them.

“The leaseholder gets nothing in return. It just seems to be not right. It is as simple as that.

“It is also mediaeval, like a the lord showing that he is the boss and everybody else has to pay for it.”

Mr Bessell, who is 82, also dismissed the proposition that doing away with ground rents would make homes more expensive.

“The question of whether ground rents are a deferred value of a new property and it would cost more without them, I find hard to accept. I think that the control on prices is market forces and if developers could get higher prices then they would.

“So I am not at worried at all that doing away with ground rents would make property prices rise. I simply do not believe it.

Mr Bessell told the APPG that he and his wife and family have a controlling interest in Retirement Security. But they have decided to leave the freeholds in trust to his pensioner leaseholders.

What Mr Bessell omitted to tell the APPG was that these freeholds were last valued at £7 million.

Related posts:

Tribute to housebuilder Bob Bessell, who says ground rents have no justification MPs tell government consultation: End leasehold houses. Scrap new ground rents. Ignore pleas for self-regulation. Ban Help To Buy on rip-off leaseholds Bob Bessell: Expelled from ARHM, but this is how leaseholders should be empowered Retirement housebuilder hands £7m of freeholds to the leaseholders Bottomley tells Taylor Wimpey to explain ‘sharp practice’ ground rents – and asks for names of directors who approved them

Category: APPG December 14 2016, MPs' APPG on leaseholdTag: Bob Bessell, Retirement Security Limited

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hudson Henry

    December 18, 2016 at 12:46 am

    May the days of being scammed be numbered.
    It is unbelievable that we have to urge our MP’s to join the All Party Parliamentary Group. Every MP should be signing up without any hesitation. This story has featured in public newspapers which I am sure they read or been brought to their attention by the team of staff working for them.
    My MP seems not interested in our issue.

    • Leaseholder

      December 18, 2016 at 8:25 pm

      Who is your MP if I may ask?

  2. Kim

    December 19, 2016 at 11:50 am

    Henry, please ‘OUT’ you MP who you say seems uninterested. Make him/ her Interested.

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