Bosses at some of Britain’s biggest building firms are using company perks to buy cut-price properties at their own developments.
Multi-millionaire chief executives have saved tens of thousands by taking advantage of staff or shareholders’ schemes to build up property empires.
Many homes were specifically intended for young families and first-time buyers – who are desperate to get on the property ladder but have been thwarted by low pay rises and soaring prices.
Yet critics say builders are lining their own pockets with ‘unethical practices’ instead of concentrating on making well-built affordable homes for young families.
Multimillionaire business tycoons have saved tens of thousands of pounds by taking advantage of staff or shareholders’ schemes to build up property empires. Pictured is Redrow boss Steve Morgan, with wife Sally, who bought six homes off his firm for just £860,000
Pete Redfern, pictured, who runs Taylor Wimpey, has bought four properties in the UK and Spain in the past five years using a five per cent discount scheme
Fat cat bosses – who are among some of Britain’s best paid – have already seen their fortunes rocket thanks to windfalls from state-backed schemes such as Help to Buy.
Some others have seen their profits inflated by taking cash from leasehold deals attached to the properties.
A probe into the rip-off arrangements, where developers sell homes that charge annual ground rent, revealed many can double every decade.
Big developers have also faced accusations they are cutting costs by building shoddy homes – while enjoying profit margins of around 20 per cent.
The huge perks enjoyed by building bosses come as Britain faces a chronic shortage of homes for young families.
Estate agents report that the number of properties on their books has fallen to the lowest level since 1978.
Yet big developers are snapping up affordable homes. A Mail investigation found that Pete Redfern, the boss of Taylor Wimpey, has bought four houses in five years, saving himself £80,000 off the asking prices.
The 46-year-old is worth more than £20million, having been paid £10.7million over the past two years, and with shares and bonuses worth another £10million.
FAT CAT BOUGHT SIX HOUSES AND RENTS FOUR BACK TO STAFF
Construction boss Steve Morgan once described council officials as ‘jobsworths’.
So the Redrow owner must have been quietly delighted when Cheshire West and Chester council changed planning rules on affordable homes at his firm’s Stretton Green development in Cheshire.
Mr Morgan, the firm’s chairman, was then able to buy six houses off the company for £860,000.
Now four of the homes, which had been put up under rules requiring the firm to offer ‘affordable housing’, are being let to staff on his estate at nearby Carden Park Hotel.
Mr Morgan’s own luxury Cheshire home, pictured, has a library, sauna and stables
The development mainly comprises 27 four and five-bedroom homes worth more than £1million.
The six affordable homes were on the market for £350,000 each but after they failed to sell, Mr Morgan, who is worth £831million, bought them at a discount.
The Liverpudlian collects at least £640 a month from each household.
The former owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC lives with his third wife, Sally Toumi, 48, at nearby Carden Hall, which boasts a great hall, library, sauna and stables.
The 64-year-old, who has five children, made headlines in 2000 when he quit Redrow. But he retained a large stake through another firm, Bridgemere.
Steve Morgan, the boss of developer Redrow, asked for special permission from Cheshire West and Chester council to snap up four affordable homes that should have been sold to buyers who are less well-off but failed to sell.
Mr Morgan, who is worth around £831million, then sought permission to use the properties to house staff working on his country estate.
Ted Ayres, who runs Bellway, used a shareholder discount to save £34,000 on a family home at a development in Welling, Kent.
And David Thomas, the 54-year-old boss of Barratt Developments, bought a £579,995 show home in Surrey under a little-known ‘sale and licence back’ deal that allows him to rent the house back to his own company for two years.
But experts last night hit out at such practices. Paula Higgins, of the Homeowners Alliance, said: ‘I wish that these house builders would focus on giving people what they want, and that is well-built affordable homes, instead of focusing on these unethical practices and lining their own pockets.’
Justin Madders, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston in Cheshire, said: ‘This is morally unacceptable. To hear that the big bosses of these developers are helping themselves to significant discounts while my constituents are suffering is an insult.’
Paul Roberts, a former Lib Dem councillor in Farndon, Cheshire, called Mr Morgan’s Redrow deal ‘immoral’.
The full details of the perks come from an audit of the accounts of the firms by the Mail.
BOSS WHO BUILT £1.7MILLION PORTFOLIO GOT 5% OFF
Taylor Wimpey boss Pete Redfern snapped up four properties in the UK and Spain in the past five years under a 5 per cent staff discount scheme.
In 2013, the 46-year-old bought a discounted London flat for £709,599 in the Mill Apartments in affluent West Hampstead. In 2012, he got money off a property costing £90,563 at an undisclosed location in Britain.
His portfolio also includes three homes at Costa Beach in Port Vell, Mallorca, which he bought last year. One of them cost £240,000 – with no discount – and another, which did benefit from a saving, was priced at around £326,000.
Mr Redfern owns a flat in an upmarket West Hampstead complex which he also bought with a discount
He already owned a home at the resort which he bought in 2015 at the discounted price of around £420,000. His total property portfolio is worth around £1.7million.
In Britain, he saved a total of £42,000 on properties using the discount scheme, and £38,000 on those in Spain. Mr Redfern has earned nearly £10.7million in the past two years.
Taylor Wimpey has seen profits boom, but was involved in selling leasehold houses with ground rents that doubled every ten years.
Details of all these executives’ dealings are tucked away deep in the small print of corporate documents – and in two cases have been rubber-stamped by housing ‘experts’ now occupying well-rewarded boardroom posts.
Among the directors who recommended Mr Morgan’s housing deal was former BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons, who as an adviser to Ed Miliband wrote a report calling for a dramatic increase in shared ownership homes to help solve the housing crisis.
Vast pay deals totalling £10.7million over the past two years for Mr Redfern, plus up to £7million in bonuses, were signed off by the chairman of Taylor Wimpey’s pay committee, Dame Kate Barker.
A 2004 review she carried out for then chancellor Gordon Brown called for more homes to meet the housing shortage. Taylor Wimpey said the discount scheme gives 5 per cent off one property purchase a year and is open to all staff.
Bellway said any qualifying shareholder is entitled to a discount of £2,000 per £25,000 on a new home. Barratt said anyone can buy a property under a sale and leaseback deal.
Redrow declined to comment.