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You are here: Home / Latest News / Pathetic efforts by plc housebuilders to address ground rent scandal exposed on TV

Pathetic efforts by plc housebuilders to address ground rent scandal exposed on TV

November 22, 2017 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Katie Kendrick, of the National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group, interviewed by Renegade.Inc

The efforts of Taylor Wimpey, Countryside Properties plc and the ground rent speculators to address unfair lease terms were exposed as public relations posturing on
TV this week.

The in-depth programme was made by independent producer Renegade Inc, and it goes out on Russia Today, YouTube and other media.

It can be viewed here:

Britain’s iFeudalism

In Europe during the Middle Ages, feudalism was the social order of the day. Society was structured between landowners and the landless. Astonishingly, that social order is on the rise again in the UK. A growing number of leasehold homeowners are at the mercy of a new class of rent-seeker – actively exploiting them in their own homes through onerous ground rents and permission fees.

One highlight was the rubbishing of the current ground rent review schemes by plc housebuilders and the tokenistic efforts of the ground rent funds (who are busy pretending that their anonymous investors, who may or may not be based offshore, are blameless pension funds).

Katie Kendrick, of the National Leasehold Campaign, and Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, demanded that the government intervene and impose transparency on this process.

The Communities Select Committee has been asked to summons the developers – primarily Taylor Wimpey – and insist that it reveal how many dodgy leases it sold to its customers and admit how many homebuyers are affected, and where.

At present, Taylor Wimpey’s face-saving review is the minimum conceivable effort to address this scandal of its own making: only leaseholders who contact the company will have their leases varied.

LKP insists they all be summonsed before the Select Committee and “given the Philip Green treatment”, to use Sir Peter Bottomley’s phrase.

The Renegade Inc programme features a round-table interview with Katie Kendrick and Sebastian O’Kelly, and interviews with two victims of the leasehold houses scandal, Lisa Chappel and Andrea Millward.

In discuss with presenter Ross Ashcroft, the murky doings of Adriatic Land were addressed – it is Katie Kendrick’s freeholder – and the involvement of William Waldorf Astor, owner of the Long Harbour fund and HomeGround (and step-brother-in-law to ex-prime minister David Cameron).

The fact that it costs £108 even to contact the company to ask for an utterly outrageous price for the freehold was ridiculed.

The Tchenguiz organisation and its family trust based in the British Virgin Islands were also mentioned.

“One Duke of Westminster is enough. Let’s not create hundreds of them,” Sebastian O’Kelly told viewers.

They may have been mystified by the strange workings of England’s archaic property laws, although Russian oligarchs in, say, One Hyde Park, who have paid more than £100 million for a property, may be surprised to learn that they are in fact simply tenants.

Mr O’Kelly said of the programme: “The programme is professionally made and makes a compelling case to address leasehold reform.

“Washing England’s dirty leasehold linen on Russia Today does not fill me personally with much enthusiasm, serving as it does Mr Putin’s mischief-making in our democracy.

“At which point it is an obligation for all journalists to recall our murdered colleague Anna Politkovskaya.”

The murder that killed free media in Russia

No other reporter has been assigned Anna Politkovskaya’s desk in Novaya Gazeta’s newsroom. It remains as a memorial, alongside her photograph and those of other murdered journalists at the newspaper, and as a reminder of the danger of the work.

Related posts:

Housebuilders ground rent scandal compo schemes ‘must go further and faster’, says housing minister Taylor Wimpey delays ground rent scandal ‘review’ to April, and hopes, like Mr Micawber, ‘something will turn up’ Taylor Wimpey to pay £130 million to solve doubling ground rent scandal Sunday Times reports Taylor Wimpey ground rent scandal, as executives meet leaseholders Taylor Wimpey more greedy than the ground rent ‘Mr Smallweeds’ (and so are other plc housebuilders)

Category: Latest News, News, PressTag: Anna Politkovskaya, Countryside Properties plc, Katie Kendrick, Renegade Inc, Russia Today, Sebastian O’Kelly

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan

    November 23, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Thanks, Seb & Katie – Great interview!

    Thanks, to, for the introduction to Renegade and RT … some very informative stuff there. Will keep watching.

  2. Lesley Newnham

    November 23, 2017 at 1:10 pm

    Well done Sebastian and Kelly this is the only ‘call for evidence’ the Government needs to see!!!! How much longer can they keep burying their heads in the sand or rather ‘pretending’ that everything is fine when they know jolly well that it isn’t!!!

    • Lesley Newnham

      November 23, 2017 at 1:11 pm

      sorry I meant Katie not Kelly!!

      • Michael Epstein

        November 23, 2017 at 1:43 pm

        Sorry, You meant “Comrade”

  3. B

    November 23, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    The comparison between a non royal paying over a Mil for a property & not being Landed Gentry is fair. Personally there is too much emphasis on attempting to take on any of the ‘Gentry’ however it does leave & create an opportunity to go after the other shysters. There are many out there who are not Titled who should be cannon fodder – why not start there?

  4. Kim

    November 23, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    Well done. You broke a leg!!

  5. Katie kendrick

    November 23, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    Thank you for the kind comments. I really enjoyed making this show. They aren’t scared of telling the truth and exposing this racket for what it is. About time !!!

    I was happy when they told me the other guest was Sebastian!! They said “do u know him”.

    Sebastian is a legend. And I can’t thank him enough for giving me the opportunity and strength to speak out.

    • Kim

      November 24, 2017 at 10:55 am

      Hey Katie,

      Do you mean that Sebastian is a Legend” ” or “ Leg End” ? ( Nicked from the great Les Dawson)

      C’mon comrades , Christmas is coming and we have got to ave a bit of a larf!,,

      The tide is turning and WE WILL be victorious in our struggle to ABOLISH LEASEHOLD and our demand that STRICT REGULATION OF M@NAGING AGENTS is introduced. Also the dodgy solicitors who enable this jiggerey pokerey should be having their collars felt.

      Champagne all round when the deed has been done. ????????????

      • Michael Epstein

        November 26, 2017 at 6:51 am

        Kim.
        Sebastian is rightly deserving of praise. But let us not forget the debt of gratitude we all owe to Martin Boyd as well.
        You ask if Sebastian is a Legend or Leg End?
        That is strictly on a “Kneed to know basis”

  6. Kim

    November 26, 2017 at 8:31 am

    Professor E

    I absolutely concur. It is a case of Yang and Yang. No room for “ Yin” with this dynamic duo.

    • Kim

      November 26, 2017 at 8:32 am

      In addition to my above post,

      BOOM BOOM.

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