The bosses of Home REIT’s biggest tenant paid themselves £1.2m just before the firm collapsed.
Gurpaal Judge, the chief of Wolverhampton-based social housing provider Lotus Housing, hiked his own and two directors’ pay to £1.2m in 2022 – up from a total of just £9,250 in 2020 – despite the firm’s losses growing to around £4.75m by October last year, an insolvency report for the firm reveals.
Lotus was Home REIT’s biggest single tenant and made up some 12.2% of its total rent roll, operating 939 beds for the firm before it collapsed earlier this month.
Investors in the REIT are drawing up plans for a ‘landlord of last resort’ as the firm’s cash dries up and its tenant base collapses.
Shareholders, led by Edinburgh-based RM Funds, are looking to create a body which will step in if further tenants go under, as part of plans dubbed ‘Project Casa’.
