London Development Agency….Crooks?

On the 11th of July I wrote about a case in the high court in which  someone close to me was ruled against, I wont bore you with all the details but the case centred on a interpretation of a single word in this case the word was “lease”.

The London Development agency known as the LDA have bought up a patch of land in Lewisham and are looking to develop it, on that site existing business’s as I pointed out earlier were enticed to leave with a mixture of carrot and stick, my friend though was invited to walk away from a business he had built up over a number of years and which is his only source of income with no compensation.

Pointing out that he had a lease and was entitled to be reimbursed for the inconvenience of being forcibly moved on seemed to be the catalyst for their legal team to play dirty, first of all approaching the company that assigned the lease they bought the land and persuaded the seller to refer to my friends lease as a licence this changed things dramatically as a licence holder not a lease holder it appeared LDA could evict him for free, my friend challenged this and subsequently lost on the interpretation of that word.

Now the sums involved here are in the grand scheme of a £250 million development tiny, but in looking to save money they rode roughshod over a small business man who now faces crippling legal fees while he waits to hear if he has the right to appeal. Many times during this process my friend referred to the LDA as crooks and how right he was, The LDA is now being investigated for missing moneys estimated at between 60-100 million pounds, two members of staff have been suspended and more suspensions could follow, co-operation from management there is not easily forthcoming,.

John Biggs Labours deputy leader at the London assembly said and I quote “there are a lot of serious questions to be answered and its frustrating that they are hiding behind internal procedures and disciplines to avoid answering ” in a separate report published in March this year, the Audit Commission highlighted systemic weaknesses in the LDA's financial management and use of resources covering the period 2007-08 that required "urgent improvement" in a number of areas. I am emailing a copy of this to London Mayor Boris Johnson and hope that fair play and decency will overcome and he will review my friends situation, So far the only winners in this situation are the Barristers/Solicitors with their exorbitant fee's.