Michael Howard–Eco-Warrior?
By Paul Homewood
Michael Howard is suggesting in the Mail that we all decarbonise to save the world. Strange, because as the Financial section of the Mail revealed just two months ago, Mr Howard was not quite so keen to be so eco-friendly himself where money was concerned:
Former Conservative leader Michael Howard is one of the key players behind plans to build a massive new town that will despoil vast swathes of some of the most beautiful countryside in England.
Lord Howard of Lympne is the chairman of South West Strategic Developments (SWSD), a little-known company ultimately owned by a private equity firm based in Bermuda, which has drawn up proposals to build up to 15,000 houses in rural Somerset, next to the village of Sparkford.
A large slice of the land in question is owned by a multi-millionaire property developer, Bill Hopkins, who is best known for a bitter High Court battle over his fortune with his ex-wife. The cement tycoon, who would stand to profit handsomely from the deal, also owns a nearby castle.
Lord Howard is the chairman of South West Strategic Developments (SWSD), which has drawn up proposals to build up to 15,000 houses in rural Somerset, next to the village of Sparkford
Local councillors say it will wreck a beautiful part of the rural landscape and is motivated by greed. Critics also argue the land is on a flood plain and that the town could take up to 20 years to build, causing huge upheaval in an area where there are no extra opportunities for employment and no rail infrastructure.
Henry Hobhouse, a Liberal Democrat district councillor for South Somerset, claims the land is unsuitable because it is on the River Cary flood plain and lacks the infrastructure needed to support the families who would live in the homes, such as schools and roads.
‘They [developers] are not interested in thinking about anything. This is about money,’ he said.
Hobhouse said local residents are ‘absolutely against it’, adding: ‘I’ve yet to meet anybody who likes it apart from the landowners. It’s a complete greenfield site that has absolutely no infrastructure at all.’
Lord Howard hit back, telling the MoS: ‘The people who would benefit – if the scheme gets planning permission – would be the thousands who will then have houses to live in.’
The plans have won the backing of local Tory MPs, but have divided local residents, some of whom are horrified at the prospect of thousands of new-build homes. Unsurprisingly, Tory MP Marcus Fysh, whose constituency next door will not be affected, supported the scheme.
Local councillors say the development will wreck a beautiful part of the rural landscape
He said: ‘It’s a big job and quite daunting in planning terms but there are fine examples happening elsewhere in the country and we should be confident in bidding for that level of investment here.’ Despite its name, South West Strategic Developments is based in Chichester, West Sussex, nearly 100 miles away. It promotes development schemes and funds projects in their early stages.
Companies House documents reveal SWSD is owned by a company called Cardinal International.
Cardinal is owned by a firm called CRBF Private Equity Limited, which is based in Bermuda, a well-known offshore tax haven. CRBF was named in the so-called Paradise Papers because it used Appleby, the law firm at the centre of the leak that exposed offshore dealings of banks, billionaires, and major world companies.
The accounts state that SWSD is reliant on loans from Cardinal, which itself depends on loans from CRBF. Lord Howard said: ‘SWSD is a UK company liable to UK taxes and any profits it makes are taxed in this country.’
It is unclear exactly how much Lord Howard is paid for his role at the company because this is not revealed in the accounts. Landowner Bill Hopkins, 69, a property tycoon worth more than £38 million, amassed his fortune from his companies Hopkins Developments and Hopkins Concrete.
He won a High Court battle with his ex-wife Caroline in 2015 after she claimed she was owed £2 million but received a tenth of that because she signed a post-nuptial agreement.
Hopkins bought luxurious Compton Castle, more than five miles away from the proposed new town, for £6.5 million in October 2015. South West Strategic Developments’ proposals were put forward as part of a local review into tackling the housing shortage. The proposal claims the scheme could create up to 19,000 jobs.
The new settlement would be situated near the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton ‘so as to harness the potential for economic development focused on the airfield’. The plans mistakenly refer to the air base as an RAF station.
Plans also include building a new university or college to support ‘technology-based businesses’.
Grass Roots, the planning consultancy working on behalf of South West Strategic, said the plans are at a very early stage.
Lord Howard lives between London and Kent, both well over 100 miles from the planned town.
Controversial path to a pot of gold
Lord Howard, 76, stood down as an MP in 2010, but clearly had no intention of taking things easy. As well as his duties as a peer, he has taken on a handful of nonexecutive director roles at controversial companies.
He makes £75,000 a year as a director of Watchstone Group, the company created out of the ashes of troubled technology business Quindell.
The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into Quindell in 2015 over alleged accounting irregularities that happened before Lord Howard was brought on board to help clean it up. He promised to banish the ‘shadow’ that was hanging over Quindell, which is still under investigation.
Howard is also chairman of Soma Oil & Gas, a Somalian oil explorer that is not listed on the stock market, in which he has a 3.9 per cent stake.
The Serious Fraud Office dropped a probe into alleged bribery at that company in 2016, saying there was ‘insufficient evidence to provide a realistic [prospect of] conviction’. Soma, which is majority-owned by the Russia’s billionaire Djaparidze family, denied any wrongdoing.
Howard remains a paid consultant to Vancouver-based miners Entrée Resources after stepping down as chairman and is on the advisory board of Tanzanian gas firm Orca Exploration. He was also a director of Global Switch, the London-based data centres giant which is now controlled by Chinese investors.
I have little doubt Michael Howard was also well paid by the Mail to write the utter drivel they published today. It seems he does not care where he gets his money from.
But to lecture the rest of us on the evils of fossil fuels is sheer hypocrisy from a man who takes money from oil companies himself.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
But, where will they put the solar panel “farms” and windmills for all these added homes?
Rees-Mogg’s constituency springs to mind. It’s not far away.
And don’t forget the Severn estuary’s world-class tidal range – perfect for the Swansea Bay treatment.
This all makes perfect sense (if you are Michael Howard).
Why is the foreign aid budget used to build new towns in the flood plain of the Punjab/Brahmaputra on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria and build loads of homes in Libya – they’ve got loads of brown belt millions of acres of it and yer know – to stop them all travelling over to here?
They just don’t care …. it’s all about the money and to house the over populated Country… terrible mess we are in …
The result of overpopulation, I guess provisions for a Mosque will be nearby, along with a kebab joint and etc … it’s a disgrace, by-by beautiful Somerset….good luck with the Halal Cider ….
Typical millionaire/billionaire “eco-warrior”. Made money from oil and now is demanding we deprive everyone else of the same opportunity. It’s a “MINE, MINE, MINE” mentality that says the only person who has value is the millionaire. What a selfish, greedy man.
“It’s a “MINE, MINE, MINE” mentality” – yep, it’s the pits! (Sorry, couldn’t resist).
It’s annoying but what can we do apart from be angry with hypocritical idiots like Howard?
The mainstream media seems to be run by idiots who never check to see if the stories they are concocting are even true. Many, as we have seen, are not. Modern reporting is in a mess.
Howard used to be my MP and now we’re lumbered with that prize ass Collins.
However I’d just like to say this:
It is NOT true that the reason Lord Howard’s commons expenses, where he claimed for gardening, were so high because all the soil was imported from Romania.
That big black cloak with the red lining is a family heirloom which is why he likes wearing it.
Although I did find it rather disconcerting during the election campaigns,when he would come around talk to me while hanging upside down from my eaves.
Howard also used to be the MP for my sister-in-law; and she had occasion to enlist his aid in something. She found him to be oddly biased to the side of “the big guns.” On the other hand, my wife was once stuck on a platform in Royal Tunbridge Wells with Ann Widdecombe, for half-an-hour, and found her to be genuine. All anecdotal, I know.
This is interesting:
–
https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/Newsarticle/Winds_from_Siberia_reduce_Arctic_sea_ice_cover/1253955174381
O/T Tracking Smart Meter PR trickery
Thursday’s Yorkshire Post : pg 12 yet another of the weekly half page Smart Meter Newsvertorials.
Friday’s Yorkshire Post :pg 15 One third of a page to boss of the campaign Robert Cheesewright “Smart Meters are a first step to a Greener County”
A PR not not news piece.
Oh on the same page an article by Bridget Fox:
Now is the time to get us on road to low-carbon future
Since we have a very diverse media in this country, she also tweet about similar but different piece in the Guardian today by Gary Fuller
Pollutionwatch: roads account for a lot of pollution so why do we need more?
More PR not news ?
Dellers covers it:
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/08/17/delingpole-margaret-thatcher-would-have-backed-trump-on-climate/