Breaking News Our Ramsgate House Hunt Opens Can of Worms

I’ve finally woken up to the very scary fact that I owe Thanet Council £23,000 and that this debt includes a cripplingly unfair 8% statutory interest rate. This large debt was imposed on me by Thanet Council to recover its legal costs for a High Court gagging injunction they took out against me in December 2014. The injunction was secured, with the approval of the then ruling Labour Cabinet at Thanet Council, to prevent me from publishing, in the public interest, confidential documents about the controversial Ramsgate Pleaurama development. The injunction is unique. Its the first time in legal history that a gagging injunction has been secured against a councillor by the council he/she was democratically elected to oversee. This unprecedented action raises some very important questions about the rights of councillors to free expression and their ability to public interest whistle-blow. But I’m digressing. The purpose of this post  is not to discuss  the injunction; I’ll be writing about that  in more detail soon, but to tell you a story  about a very surprising thing which happened to me, which wouldn’t have happened had I not been trying to deal with the injunction and the astronomic court costs.

Having no savings or  income apart from state benefits and a small rental from our  granny annexe, Jo and I recently began searching  for a cheaper  home  for ourselves and our 3 daughters. The idea was to free up some cash so we could pay off Thanet Council and be free of the debt and massive annual interest payments once and for all.

Last week we discovered what we thought was the answer. A large family home with a separate self–contained basement flat at 27  La Belle Alliance Square Ramsgate. The pictures and the description on the Ward and Co website were very exciting and Jo and I thought this property might be a solution to our problems. The asking price was  £385,000. The property  had been on the market since April so we might possibly  get a deal at £360- £375k which would free up enough cash to pay off Thanet Council. It was large enough for the  5 strong Driver clan and had room for  visitors to stay and the girls' mates to come and play. It also looked quite nice and homely too.

No planning application or building control application for the flat

But having had previous bad experiences of house buying  Jo and I have become very cautious house hunters and we like to do a little bit of homework before we take things further with a property we might fancy. The first thing was to find out more about the flat. According to the estate agent’s  blurb  “the basement is currently arranged as a one bedroom self contained flat which has been recently converted and never used”. Having worked for several years in Camden council's  planning department I know that to convert part of a dwelling house into a self-contained flat almost always requires planning permission and building regulations  approval. So we checked Thanet Council’s planning records and discovered  that no planning permission had been granted for the flat and nor had building regulations approval been given for the conversion work.

No separate council tax banding for the flat

We next checked the council tax status of the recently converted self-contained basement flat. According to the Government’s Valuation Office any “part of a building which has been constructed or adapted for use as separate living accommodation”, is required by law to have a separate council tax banding and even if the flat is not occupied by a rent-paying tenant the owner of the flat is still required to pay the council tax due for the flat.  The Valuation Office defines "separate living accommodation" as accommodation which has independent access, or access from a hallway or other area; its own facilities for preparing food and sleeping; its own washing  facilities and a toilet. Looking at the floor plans from the estate agent its clear that this flat meets all of the Valuation Office criteria to be classified as  a council taxable unit of  "separate living accommodation".

picture from estate agent website of the flat

When I worked in planning at Camden council the normal practice was for my team to pass on details of all flat/ annexe conversions to the council tax team so that they could arrange for a valuation to carried out and the newly converted property added to the council tax billing register. However the conversion at 27 La Belle Alliance Square does not appear to have had planning permission or building regulations approval so the council is almost certainly unaware that the flat exists and that a new listing needs to be added to the council tax register for the property. Just to be doubly sure that the owners had, like good citizens should always do, notified the council about the flat, Jo and I double checked the property against the latest council tax register information dated 5 September 2016. The register  lists 27 La Belle Alliance Square as a single property in council tax band C with no separately listed and valued self-contained flat.

another picture of the flat

Clearly the owners of the property we were interested in had failed to secure planning permission and building regulations for the flat conversion and had failed to notify Thanet Council about the existence of the flat for council tax purposes.  These are acts which are unlawful and which most reasonable people would say were dishonest, or perhaps something stronger like fraud. Worse still carrying out the flat conversion without planning permission and building regulations approval is downright irresponsible and  potentially dangerous because unchecked and non approved building works such as electrical wiring and the like  could easily be  sub-standard and dangerous, putting at risk the safety of anyone living in the flat.  So who are the owners of 27 La Belle Alliance Square Ramsgate?



Well you could have  knocked me down with a feather when I found out!   It’s non other than the former Mayor of Ramsgate, David Green and his wife Elizabeth Green! The Greens are longstanding, some might say too longstanding, senior Labour politicians.  David Green, was a Labour councillor on Thanet District Council (TDC) for 16 years (1999-2015) and a Ramsgate Town councillor from 2009 -15. He was Mayor of Ramsgate between 2009-12 and a member of Thanet’s council’s ruling Labour Cabinet between 2011-15 with special responsibility for the council’s  planning and housing services. He recently attempted an unsuccessful political comeback in the July Newington by-election and was, I believe,  the  manager of Labour's unsuccessful Northwood by-election campaign last month. He is also the Treasurer of the South Thanet Labour Party.   Elizabeth Green was a Labour councillor on Thanet District Council (TDC) for 16 years (1999-2015), a Ramsgate Town councillor from 2009 -15 and Kent County Councillor between 2005-13 and a member of Thanet’s council’s ruling Labour Cabinet between 2013-15. The Greens were in effect part of a professional political elite,  living well off  their not inconsiderable councillor allowances for almost 2 decades.



The Greens. Prominent Thanet Labour politicians. Were they prominently dishonest or prominently forgetful? What do you think?

Its inconceivable that experienced and very  senior politicians, like the Greens, didn’t know that their flat conversion required planning permission and building regulations approval, especially when its borne in mind that David Green was in charge of Thanet Council’s planning service for several years.
I also find it hard  to understand why the Greens appear to have failed to register their flat for separate council tax banding and why they have therefore probably failed to pay the council tax which technically is due to Thanet Council.
As members of  Thanet Council's ruling Labour Cabinet until 2015 they were responsible for ending the 6 month council tax exemption policy on empty houses and flats in the district. This means that council tax on the Green's flat was due immediately after the conversion works had been completed, which was April 2016 if not sooner. They were also responsible for developing polices to maximise council tax collection rates in the Thanet district. Its difficult for me to believe that having gained so much council tax experience and knowledge whilst they were Thanet councillors and Cabinet members,  they simply forgot, or didn't realise,   that they owned a flat for which they should have been paying council tax!  

As prominent Ramsgate citizens David and Elizabeth Green must follow the rules like everyone else is required to do, but what I have found out  suggests  to me that they were probably doing the opposite. These are extremely serious allegations which may  mean that the Greens evaded the payment of  council tax  and may have carried out unlawful conversion works as well.  Having not been checked and certified these works could potentially  be sub-standard and pose safety risks and danger to anyone living in the flat. 
I will be contacting the Leader of Thanet Council to request that this matter is investigated. If the investigation reveals any wrong doing I would expect the Greens to pay in full any tax which is deemed to have been due and to secure any relevant permissions and conduct any required works  to regularise their flat
Thanet Labour  Party should also do the right thing and suspend from membership the Greens until investigations are carried out.  If I was a member of Thanet Labour Party I would insist that the Greens were expelled from Labour membership if it is found to be the case that they unlawfully converted a flat and then sought to avoid the payment of council tax due on that flat. Surely such actions, if they are found to be true, could be seen as bringing the Labour Party into disrepute.

Latest news David Green has challenged my account of matters related to his home. I am busy with Live animal exports tonight but will reply to him tomorrow via my blogiste. It will be an interesting read.