Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, the property arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, could slip through the net of a government plan to pay to fix unsafe cladding.
The government plans to call on residential developers with an average annual profit of at least £10m to pay into a new fund to raise £4bn to fix cladding issues on properties where the original developer or the contractor that carried out renovation works is untraceable. This could include scenarios where the original developer is based overseas, operated at the time through a special purpose vehicle, or has gone out of business.
Analysis of Companies House accounts shows that no UK registered company operated by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company appears to have made sufficient profit to be caught by the government’s scheme. The accounts would also exclude the developer from contributing to a residential property developer tax, levied on profit over £25m, that was announced last year to raise £2bn to help fund remediation works.
