40 Monday February 21 2022 | the times
Business
The property arm of the sovereign
wealth fund of Qatar is behind some of
London’s most luxurious develop-
ments. However, it could escape a
government plan for residential devel-
opers to foot a multibillion-pound bill
to fix unsafe cladding on properties
they did not build because of the
complex web of companies it operates.
Residential developers with an aver-
age annual profit of at least £10 million
have been told the government plans to
force them to pay into a new fund to
raise £4 billion to fix cladding defects
on properties they had no involvement
in building, where the original
developer or contractor that carried
out renovation works is untraceable.
This could include where the original
developer is based overseas, operated
through a special purpose vehicle, or
has gone out of business.
Analysis of Companies House ac-
counts shows that no UK-registered
company operated by Qatari Diar Real
Estate Investment Company appears
to have made sufficient profits to be
caught by the government’s scheme.
The accounts would also exclude the
developer from contributing to a resi-
dential property developer tax, levied
on profits over £25 million, that was
announced last year to raise £2 billion
to help fund remediation works. The fire at Grenfell Tower, in which 72 people died, led residents of tall blocks to
Qatari developer could
avoid cladding fund bill
Qatari Diar’s London developments
include Chelsea Barracks near Sloane
Square. It paid almost £1 billion in 2007
to buy the site from the Ministry of
Defence and the development, which
has the capacity for about 450 homes,
now commands some of the highest
prices in Britain. Last year a townhouse
sold for £55 million.
The developer is also behind the
planned conversion of the former US
embassy on Grosvenor Square
in Mayfair, right, into a five-
star hotel with a spa and
ballroom.
It has further expo-
sure to the UK housing
market through its
ownership of a minor-
ity stake in Get Living,
the rental housing oper-
ator behind properties in
the former London 2012
Olympic village in Stratford,
east London, and developments
in Elephant & Castle, south London,
Leeds and Manchester.
The analysis raises questions about
the fairness of the government’s policy,
which has angered some of Britain’s
biggest housebuilders. They say their
developments, which they have com-
mitted to remediating, only account for
a small portion of the high-rise build-
ings across the country to be ruled un-
safe since the Grenfell Tower tragedy in- That fire, in which 72 people died,
led to an overhaul of building regula-
tions in England.
The Home Builders Federation,
which represents UK housebuilders,
accused the government of going after
domestic businesses for funding
because it was easier than chasing
companies headquartered overseas.
“With a majority of affected buildings
having been constructed by other par-
ties, it is difficult not to draw the
conclusion that UK home
builders are being targeted
because as UK-head-
quartered businesses, it
is a simpler proposition
than pursuing overseas
developers,” the group
said.
A spokesman for the
Department for Levelling
Up, Housing and Commu-
nities said: “Our new meas-
ures will legally require develop-
ers to pay in full to fix defects on their
buildings, without passing costs on to
leaseholders. If they fail to do the right
thing, we will impose a solution — such
as expanding our levy on new residen-
tial developments and preventing them
from building new homes. New legal
powers will also mean developers who
hide behind shell companies to avoid
responsibility can be sued.”
Qatari Diar declined to comment.
Louisa Clarence-Smith
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