Speaking in Singapore on Tuesday, David Cameron said he was concerned that many UK properties, particularly luxury properties in London, were being bought overseas ‘through anonymous shell companies, some with plundered or laundered cash’.
He said: ‘I want Britain to be the most open country in the world for investment but I want to ensure that all this money is clean money.
‘There is no place for dirty money in Britain – indeed, there should be no place for dirty money anywhere.’
A recent investigation by anti-corruption organisation Transparency International found that 36,342 London properties were owned by offshore companies, 16 per cent of which were Jersey companies, and it is estimated that £120 billion worth of properties in England and Wales are owned offshore.
Mr Cameron announced plans to introduce a UK central registry in the autumn, which will set out all British land owned by foreign companies, and there will also be a consultation over whether to expand the register to include details of the extended ownership behind such companies.
In reaction to the Prime Minister’s comments, Jersey Finance chief executive Geoff Cook said the Island’s finance industry was ‘part of the solution’ in clamping down on money laundering.
He said: ‘So far as Jersey is concerned, it welcomes moves to establish a level playing field in clamping down on money-laundering and corrupt activity.
‘Jersey leads current international standards, through operating a central registry that is deemed a best-practice model by the World Bank, and through regulating all corporate service providers, who have a legal obligation to ensure that accurate and up-to-date information is held on the real owners of companies, trusts and bank accounts.
‘Jersey’s ability to capture ownership information of companies is far ahead of other jurisdictions, including the UK.
‘Against that backdrop, Jersey is very much part of the solution in ensuring high-quality flows of international investment into the UK, including property structuring.’
Speaking to the Financial Times yesterday, James Quarmby, the head of private wealth at London law firm Stephenson Harwood, called Mr Cameron’s plans to publish a list of companies that own UK land a ‘gimmick’.
He said: ‘It would be a duplication of existing public domain information – the word “gimmick” comes to mind.
London-based offshore tax consultant Mark Davies, also speaking to the Financial Times, said the argument that offshore companies were being used for corrupt purposes was ‘not the case in the vast majority of situations’.
