After8
12:47 Sun Dec 20
Re: Falling Fee
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Labour leader's ally Jon Lansman accused of hypocrisy over links to tax shelter finance group
The director of Momentum, the controversial Jeremy Corbyn supporters’ group, is closely linked to a web of property companies, some of them offshore, used for tax avoidance and community “asset-stripping”.
Jon Lansman, who describes himself as a “veteran Bennite”, runs a long-standing hard-Left website, Left Futures, which campaigns strongly against “fat cat tax dodgers” and “asset-stripping private equity bosses” in “this no-holds-barred era of crooked capitalism”.
However, Left Futures is based in the Soho offices of Foundation Property & Capital (FPC), run by Mr Lansman’s brother Stephen and son Ben, which specialises in “creating small co-investment vehicles for high net worth investors”, allowing them to “shelter income tax”, working in conjunction with a leading private equity company. Ben Lansman is a director of Ortonovo Holdings, also based at FPC, which owns Left Futures.
On behalf of its wealthy clients, FPC buys up “undervalued” community assets, such as pubs and homeless people’s hostels, which are typically closed and their tenants evicted, either by FPC or the vendor. The buildings are then converted into housing or more profitable retail. FPC describes itself as “unashamedly opportunistic”.
At The Blue Lion in Harmans Water, Berkshire, Trevor Cook, who had been landlord for 12 years and lived above the bar, was made redundant and given three weeks to leave when the pub was sold to FPC by the previous owners, the Stonegate Pub Company.
Mr Cook told the local newspaper that the closure came as a “bit of a bombshell” after a record week in which the pub had “made more money than we’d ever made before”.
He said: “I don’t understand the need for speed. This pub has been my life for the last 12 years. Being a landlord isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle, and you’re working 24/7.
“Now I’ve got two weeks left to find a new job and somewhere to live. There’s a lot to do, especially when you’re not really sure where you’re going. I’m probably going to have to do some sofa surfing.”
The local council has refused FPC permission to turn the now empty pub into housing and a convenience store, but it is appealing.
At The Heroes of Lucknow pub in Aldershot, Hants, landlords Sylvia and Brian Kauppila were thrown out after 29 years.
Mrs Kauppila said: “The deal was all done behind our backs.
“We were first told we had three months to get out then, once it had been purchased, they asked us to stay on a temporary lease, and we did, then they asked if we would be willing to get out within a month if offered some money so we said yes.
“We got out within a month but because it was a verbal contract we never got anything. In a sense I’m quite relieved we've left because things were getting very hard, our hands were full, but it was our family home.”
The pub has now been converted into a convenience store.
On Canvey Island, Essex, FPC bought and closed the King Canute pub, a local landmark renamed after it was one of the few buildings not affected by the devastating 1953 floods. Many locals still remember being rescued from the waters by troops operating from the pub. FPC has rebuffed a 400-signature petition from locals asking for the King Canute to be reopened and wants to build housing in the grounds.
FPC has also been involved in the sale of several homeless hostels, including Castle Lane in Victoria, which was sold to the development giant Land Securities for £22.5 million.
Housing officials at the local council, Westminster, said the hostel had had “considerable success in working with rough sleepers” and its closure “resulted in a gap in service provision” for the homeless, with the loss of 170 beds.
Other homeless hostels sold, described by FPC as “redundant” and “monolithic,” included 7 Dock Street, near Aldgate, London, sold for around £10 million and now used by backpackers, Princess Beatrice House in Earls Court, which became student accommodation in a £15 million deal, and Judd House, near Old Street roundabout, which has been turned into 20 “warehouse-style apartments for affordable and market rent”.
FPC promotes itself to investors as a means of avoiding tax. Publicity material for its Convenience Stores Income and Growth Limited Partnership, seen by the Telegraph, states that it offers “tax efficiency” with “substantial capital allowances” which “should shelter income tax for the first two years of investment”.
FPC is held through a complex network of more than 40 companies and partnerships, most in the UK but some offshore.
The vast majority of FPC’s operations are in the UK but the company’s main funds do not appear to be held in Britain. None of the UK companies which has filed accounts contains substantial sums and those which have filed accounts do so as “small companies".
Part of FPC’s property portfolio is held under offshore mortgages and other arrangements with a sister company in the tax haven of Luxembourg, Foundation Property & Capital SARL.
Directors of the Luxembourg company include Mark Pearson and William Oliver, who are senior managers in the giant Forum Partners private equity company. FPC declined to answer when asked if it or its clients were avoiding tax by using a shell company based in Luxembourg. There is no suggestion that FPC or its clients have done anything illegal.
Left Futures, Mr Lansman’s website, rails against “the murky influence of Tory money on British politics via such devices as family trusts, non-dom arrangements [and] offshore mortgages.” It attacks “letter-box companies that are used to route profits through countries such as the Netherlands and Luxemburg to take advantage of favourable tax treaties,” condemning them as “arcane devices to defeat tax justice for the world’s other 99.9999 per cent.”
“Jon Lansman’s followers are going round trying to undermine decent Labour MPs, like Stella Creasey, who have actually achieved things for the poor,” said one London Labour MP.
“Meanwhile, while preaching hard-Left righteousness, he is tied in with a company that appears to profit from the asset-stripping of community facilities such as pubs and homeless hostels. It is hypocritical, to say the least.”
Mr Lansman, a veteran of 1980s hard-Left faction-fighting, was a key figure in Mr Corbyn’s leadership bid and is sole director of Momentum Campaign Limited, based at his £1 million flat in Butler’s Wharf, Shad Thames, next to Tower Bridge in London. He created Momentum to “continue the energy and enthusiasm of Jeremy’s campaign” and insists that it is not about deselecting Labour moderates.
However, the group has been described as “stupid”, “aggressive” and a “rabble” by members of Labour’s shadow cabinet and several Momentum activists appear to substantiate fears by moderate Labour MPs that it is targeting them.
Writing on the website of “Labour Party Marxists”, of which he is secretary, Stan Keable,Momentum’s organiser in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, stated: “As the hard right begins its civil war, the left must respond with a combination of disciplinary threats, constitutional changes and reselection measures.
“Those [MPs] sabotaging Labour election campaigns, those who vote with the Tories on austerity, war or migration, must be hauled up before the NEC [National Executive Committee]. If MPs refuse to abide by party discipline… we should democratically select and promote trustworthy replacement candidates.”
Another Momentum activist, Simon Hewitt, from the Leeds Central constituency of the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn MP, wrote in a hard-Left journal, Labour Briefing: “If your MP is voting in Parliament against the policies that Jeremy won the leadership with, it is absolutely essential that left-wingers organise to trigger reselection.” The article was written before Mr Benn further angered Left-wingers with a defence of military action in Syria.
Left Futures also campaigns vitriolically against “right-wing” Labour MPs. In an article last week, it wrote: “Do you really think it’s an accident that Corbyn has been photographed in a Santa hat? Actually, he’s making a list, he's checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. And clearly a significantly chunk of the Parliamentary Labour Party have not been good boys and girls this year, repeatedly crossing the border demarcating legitimate dissent and deliberate destabilisation.”
On Saturday Mr Lansman said that he supported his brother and son.
“As far as I’m concerned FPC is an entirely ethical company,” he said.
“I have absolute confidence in that. Neither my brother or my son have anything to do with any of my political activities.”
Both he and FPC declined to comment further, or respond to specific questions about the company’s activities or tax strategies.
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