Telereal Trillium’s executive chair has been revealed as one Q1’s biggest political donors.
Graham Edwards, who has led the £8bn property outsourcing and investment giant since 2000 and headed up the takeover of Trillium from Landsec in 2009, has donated £2m to the Conservative Party.
It is the second-largest donation this quarter to any political party, matching the £2m given to the Conservatives by textiles businessman Amit Lohia, but less than the £5m donated by Egypt-born billionaire Mohamed Mansour.
Edwards (pictured) was appointed treasurer and board member of the Conservative Party in December last year. While he has donated funds before – around £3.5m in total – this is the most sizeable to date.
He told EG: “While I know that there are some in the property industry who have concerns about current policy, I also know that despite the current economic difficulties, the Government is made up of committed public servants who want to see a flourishing property sector and rising home ownership. I also really believe that Conservative incentives lead to a thriving economy, while Labour incentives may lead to a very different outcome.”
He added: “For the last five years a major focus of mine has been promoting home ownership, in particular working on a policy idea of 95% LTV 30-year 3% fixed rate mortgages.”
In 2019 Edwards started working with the Centre for Policy Studies on mortgages and published a report, ‘Resentful Renters’, calling for a change to mortgages allowing for 30-year fixed-rate loans.
He told The Daily Telegraph that prime minister Rishi Sunak was a “man who can both unite his party and get things done”.
In total, UK political parties received £20.9m in donations and public funds in the first three months of 2023, compared with £12.8m in the first three months of 2022.
The Conservatives pulled in the largest amount at £12.28m. Labour was handed £5.84m.
Other property-related donations to the Conservatives include £145,000 donated by Westcombe Homes, a London property development business owned by the Pankhania family.
Property investors Firefly Capital and Geller Capital both donated £50,000 each to the Conservative Party.
Property investor Leo Noé gave £12,500 to the Conservatives, while property finance firm Glenhawk Group gave £11,300 and developer Frontier Estate handed over £10,000 to the party.
Countywide Developments gave £10,000 in cash to former housing minister Brandon Lewis.
It does not appear that any major property names donated to the other parties.
But the big developer names notable in previous lists are notably absent. None of the major housebuilders have contributed to Conservative Party funds, although Persimmon Homes did give £2,000 in cash to Conservative MP for Carlisle, John Stevenson.
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