{"id":19996,"date":"2016-10-17T22:38:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T21:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/?p=19996"},"modified":"2016-10-23T21:22:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T20:22:42","slug":"link-holdings-gibraltar-ltd-an-open-letter-to-carwyn-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/link-holdings-gibraltar-ltd-an-open-letter-to-carwyn-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd: An Open Letter to Carwyn Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 17th<\/sup>\u00a02016<\/strong><\/p>\n

First Minister,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You may have read my previous post, ”. If not, then I suggest you read it, if only to help you understand what follows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your government gives a great deal of public money to housing associations. These bodies are largely unregulated and, as a consequence, a law unto themselves. (One reason so many of them run into ‘difficulties’.) For example, Pembrokeshire Housing – a body that receives a great deal of money from the public purse – funds its subsidiary Mill Bay Homes in the building of private houses for sale. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The emergence of this particular scandal is due entirely to dedicated individuals rather than to the media, politicians, or those answerable to you who claim to be overseeing the Registered Social Landlords you so lavishly fund.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it emerges that housing associations funded by your government are leasing – perhaps also renting – property from Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd, a company that is registered in a tax haven to hide the identity of those behind it, also to escape UK regulations and of course to avoid paying UK tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Guardian<\/em> told us\u00a0that Arron Banks, funder of Ukip, friend of Nigel Farage and financial backer of his recent Leave.EU campaign, also makes use of Gibraltar. (Read it here<\/a>.) When I read the story bells rang because details of Banks’ Gibraltar connection seemed familiar to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s because both Link Holdings and Arron Banks use Parliament Lane Nominees as directors, and both also use STM Fidecs Management Ltd as secretaries. (Check Link Holdings’ company profile<\/a> from Companies House in Gibraltar to confirm this.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Coincidence? Probably, but the Guardian<\/em> article raises the possibility that Welsh housing associations, funded and supposedly regulated by the Welsh Government, could be leasing properties from Arron Banks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the blog post I refer you to focusing on Swansea this problem is not confined to that city, or to Link Holdings. To begin with, Link Holdings owns property across southern Wales, so it’s reasonable to assume that RSLs in other areas have an arrangement with Link. Then, knowing that Link is one of many offshore companies owning property in Wales makes it equally reasonable to assume that housing associations have dealings with companies other than Link. (Read this<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter which possibility we consider, neither does your government or the housing associations involved any favours. Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd could be owned by Arron Banks, or it could be owned by the Mafia, the Moonies, or money-launderers, we just don’t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

Successive Labour administrations in the Assembly have told us they believe in ‘openness’, they’ve also reminded us how responsible they are in their handling of the public purse.\u00a0You now have an opportunity to prove that these claims are more than empty rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unless, that is, you see nothing wrong with housing associations passing on public funding to property companies registered in tax havens. But I find that difficult to believe.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also believe that no right-thinking Welsh politician would sanction what I have explained here, so we are entitled to know who is behind Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd. We are also entitled to know if you and the housing associations involved are unable to identify who is behind this company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone also needs to explain why the Welsh Government allowed publicly-funded bodies to do business with companies registered in tax havens. Before, finally, promising that such behaviour will be brought to an end.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s clear from the Link Holdings case, from what’s happening in Pembrokeshire, and from other evidence, that the social housing sector is in one hell of a mess. A well-funded but almost completely unregulated mess.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to this problem lies in genuine reform, not in encouraging housing associations run by Labour Party members to take over faltering RSLs in order to increase Labour’s stranglehold on Welsh public life. (I am of course referring here to the recent\u00a0.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me conclude by suggesting that you, First Minister, practise what your party preaches about openness and concern for the public purse by making sure that no more of our<\/em> money\u00a0reaches secretive companies registered in Gibraltar or any other tax haven.<\/span><\/p>\n

END<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPDATE 18.10.2016:<\/strong><\/span> I have now decided to write directly to the First Minister. Here’s my letter<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 17th\u00a02016 First Minister, You may have read my previous post, ”. If not, then I suggest you read it, if only to help you understand what follows. Your government gives a great deal of public money to housing associations. These bodies are largely unregulated and, as a consequence, a law unto themselves. (One reason … <\/p>\n

Continue reading Link Holdings (Gibraltar) Ltd: An Open Letter to Carwyn Jones<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,83,15,62,9],"tags":[2570,1492,399,2551,2573,2545,1982,963,2571,1980,2572,1752,696],"class_list":["post-19996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-funding","category-social-housing","category-third-sector","category-welsh-government","category-welsh-labour","tag-arron-banks","tag-cantref","tag-coastal-housing-group","tag-family-housing-association-wales-ltd","tag-leave-eu","tag-link-holdings-gibraltar-ltd","tag-mill-bay-homes","tag-nigel-farage","tag-parliament-lane-nominees-ltd","tag-pembrokeshire-housing","tag-stm-fidecs-management-ltd","tag-ukip","tag-wales-and-west-housing-association"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3gS9T-5cw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacothenorth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}