UK Property register idea would unmask company owners

Monday 03 June 2019

Local companies owning land in the UK will have to reveal their true owners to national authorities if a Westminster 'dirty money' bill gets passed.

The measures are intended to address UK government concerns that opaque company structures can be used by criminals to conceal the proceeds of crime through property acquisition.

And as much as a third of UK property owned by offshore structures is owned by Channel Islands companies, at least according to statistics from a research paper produced by the national Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Currently 12% of UK property held by overseas entities is held by Guernsey-registered companies. The BVI has 23% and Jersey 21%. 

The Draft Bill would make it obligatory for such companies to reveal their beneficial ownership – who truly benefits from the assets they own – in future. This is something Guernsey and Jersey have been resolutely against doing in the past.

Having been being worked on for some time now, the Draft 'Registration of Overseas Entities Bill' came back into the lime light last month when the Parliamentary Committee published its response to the idea. It strongly endorsed the principle that information about the ownership of overseas companies that own property in the UK should be made fully public.

The UK already has a public beneficial ownership register, while the islands do have a register, but not one that is available for public viewing. It is only accessibly to law enforcement and investigators. 

There has been pressure from the UK for years now to try to encourage Guernsey to follow suite, and make its register public, but the States have said there is no need, and that making our register public would do nothing to prove we are following regulation. 

Westminster's interest in the UK bill peaked last week, when the High Court froze three offshore company-owned London Homes worth £80million in the second-ever use of an anti-corruption order aiming to uncover the source of the mysterious wealth behind their doors.

Both islands had the chance to contribute to the report done on the bill. They argued that their central registers of ownership – already accessible by law enforcement agencies – should be regarded as sufficient for the purposes of the proposed legislation.

Express have been told the committee's report did not agree with this view.

The UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will now consider the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report, published on 20 May, and responses to a public consultation which closed last autumn.

The legislation is unlikely to come into force until 2021.

Pictured top: The Houses of Parliament.