One company registered in the British Virgin Islands tax haven owns property in Manchester with a value of around £27 million. The company name is Wisdom Max Group Limited, but who is the ultimate owner of this company and how did they make their money? These are questions that commonly go unanswered due to the […]
Dramatic rise in tax haven companies owning property in Manchester mimics the city’s growing skyline
Property in Manchester is not only reaching for the sky: its ownership is extending across the globe. With investors keen to cash in on the lucrative high rise luxury housing boom in Manchester city centre, the number of properties owned by companies registered overseas has risen by 8.8% in just eight months. Tower blocks are […]
The Spider’s Web – how Britain helps the wealthy avoid tax globally
‘The Spiders Web: Britain’s Second Empire’ documents Britain’s central role in creating and orchestrating a web of offshore tax havens that help the rich and powerful across the world, avoid their obligations to society, to build up ever greater piles of wealth in companies incorporated in British Crown Dependencies such as Jersey, or Overseas Territories […]
Defying the council, activists rename street after Ahmed Mansoor – an Emirati human rights defender sentenced to ten years in jail
A bid by human rights activists to rename a street after Ahmed Mansoor was refused by Manchester city council. When Mansoor was jailed for ten years in the United Arab Emirates for tweeting about human rights abuses in his country, the activists decided to rename the street themselves, with an unofficial mayor doing the honours. […]
HSBC’s arms investments haunt them as campaigners for Palestine stage die-in
The high street bank HSBC’s investments in the arms trade came back to haunt them on Tuesday when pro-Palestinian activists occupied their branch in St Ann’s Square, Manchester, chanting: “your profits are covered in Palestinian blood”. The activists lay on the floor alongside child-size coffins to represent the multitude of Palestinians killed and injured over the […]
Endemic avoidance of payments to councils by property developers revealed, while affordable housing is sacrificed for profit
A comprehensive report on the huge sums of money fuelling the housing development boom in the city centre has revealed the scale of non-payment of development funding to the council: only 8% of housing development in Manchester City Centre included in the study had any Section 106 agreement at all. The lack of money collected […]
The Addy land squat: a missed opportunity for Hulme?
When masked bailiffs arrived to clear the North Hulme Adventure Playground of a group of squatters and dismantle the homes they had built there, it marked the end of the most recent in a series of occupations, and eventual evictions, of non-residential buildings across Manchester. The site’s residents spent three months clearing, building and planning […]
Rochdale regeneration or profit before people?
When Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) announced its simultaneous proposals for the regeneration of College Bank and Lower Falinge, on the 24 June, they were presented as the only solution and as somehow being radical. The proposals are certainly radical in terms of demolition. There will be an estimated loss of 720 primarily social rent properties […]
Who is this city for?
Rochdale Councillor John Blundell, who is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Planning and Housing Commission, last week published a piece in Manchester Confidential entitled ‘Why foreign property investors are not a bad thing for Manchester‘. We welcome his willingness to participate in public debate about the future of our city region, but […]
Manchester’s property investment boom funded through tax dodging offshore companies and unethical international investment
Towering apartment blocks going up all over Manchester and Salford are evidence of a property investment boom underway in the midst of a housing crisis for many. Research has revealed that this boom is fueled by foreign investment capital channeled through layers of offshore holding companies that allow the lucky few involved to avoid paying […]