David Cameron promises new crackdown on corrupt London home buyers driving up house prices

Prime Minister David Cameron will today vow to stop the UK from becoming a haven for “dirty money”.

 

He promises to reveal corrupt offshore organisations that purchase high-end London properties using “laundered cash”, which increase prices, exacerbating the capital’s affordability crisis.

 

“I want Britain to be the most open country in the world for investment,” Cameron is set to say in Singapore. 

 

“But I want to ensure that all this money is clean money. There is no place for dirty money in Britain. Indeed, there should be no place for dirty money anywhere.”

 

“Together, I believe we can defeat the cancer of corruption in all its forms and, with it, strike the biggest blow for our generation in the struggle to ensure greater prosperity in every part of the world.”

 

He will also use the speech to express concern that luxury London homes are being bought “through anonymous shell companies, some with plundered or laundered cash”.

 

Cameron is set to promise to introduce a public land registry of foreign companies in autumn, setting out what property they own. A similar system is already in place but the new plans make the information easier to access.

 

He will also consult on whether to expand a newly introduced register of UK company owners to overseas companies who are granted public sector contracts.