Good morning!
The Pandora Papers continue to serve up a box of goodies for the national papers as more and more of the world’s wealthiest people are revealed to have used offshore firms to “secretly” buy property. Lady Green, wife of retail tycoon Philip, has splashed almost £40m buying four posh homes around London, with assets acquired as BHS was sold for £1, while a British-Iranian family behind what has been labelled the “world’s biggest bribe scandal” has been revealed to have used an offshore company to buy around £200m of property, including a cinema in Sunderland.
Elsewhere, Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden took a cheap shot at chancellor Rishi Sunak and grabbed the headlines by telling civil servants to “get off their Pelotons” and back to the office.
And, indeed back to the shop.
Amazon today opens its first #IRL non-food shop at Bluewater. The 4-Star store will sell products that are rated with four stars or more on its online offering. The Bluewater store will stock up to 2,000 products.
And troubles continue for Chinese real estate firms. Developer Fantasia Holdings is the latest to have to admit that it has failed to make a bond repayment on time. The mid-sized builder was due to repay a $206m bond on Monday but missed the deadline.
#ICYMI Climate change campaigners opposed to the government’s changes to permitted development rights took their legal challenge to the Court of Appeal yesterday. Campaign group Rights: Community: Action is seeking a judicial review of changes to permitted development rules and use classes. It wants to quash three statutory instruments used by the secretary of state to bring in the changes.
