Private Eye Map Sheds Light On Offshore Interests In Wrexham

A new interactive map has been released by Private Eye, showing which properties are registered to offshore companies, and includes Wrexham on its map.

Island Green and various elements of town centre retail space appear as registered offshore, along with plots of land scattered around the area.

Previously Wrexham.com has written and contrasted the views of Eagles Meadow’s manager on business rates, to the then ownership of the centre by “Merlin UK Property Venture” with an addresses in Luxembourg plus the tax arrangements of some tenants. The centre has since been sold, apparently to a Manchester based consortium.

The Private Eye map does not show the entire of Eagles Meadow being leasehold to the Luxembourg company from Wrexham Council, however it does show some elements around the main site registered to the same entity.

Private Eye says: “The map shows all land and property registered in England and Wales in the name of an offshore company between 2005 and July 2014.

“It uses data released following Freedom of Information requests from Private Eye and expert work by software engineer Anna Powell-Smith.”

“Freehold properties are indicated by orange shapes covering the exact area of the property. Leasehold properties are shown by purple pin points.

“The map includes properties owned by any overseas company, not just those based in tax havens, sometimes for legitimate reasons. Even the freehold on the saintly Eye’s premises, owned by an Australian company, appears.

“Highlighting an individual property’s details also provides a link to email the Eye with any further information readers may have about the property.”

All data is from Land Registry records, which occasionally contain errors. ”

The interactive map can be found here.