Who owns London?

Sherlock Holmes called London “the cesspool of empire”. 

The words still ring true (if you replace ‘empire’ with ‘globalisation’). 

London has more foreign direct investment (FDI) than any other city globally.

That’s why it is perfectly normal in London to rent from a Qatari and drink Saudi-owned tap water in a house powered by French government electricity. 

To commute via Chinese black cabs or Canadian trains passing Danish-owned landmarks and Hong Kongese skyscrapers.

Just to end the day drinking American beer in a covered market owned by Israelis.

Don’t believe me? Let’s start with… 

Getting around London (courtesy of foreign countries)

You fly to one of the city’s four airports. Welcome to London, capital of a former empire and now colony to the world’s wealthiest men. 

• Heathrow is owned by a Spanish company called Ferrovial

• A French firm, Vinci SA, owns Gatwick

• Luton is owned by Spaniards and Australians 

• A bunch of Mancunian town councils own Stanstead. 

Of course, you want to get to the inner city—but how? 

You could take…

🚇 The Elizabeth Line, now operated by the Japanese firm GTS. 

🚕 Or one of London’s famous black cabs, owned by a Chinese electric vehicle company. 

🚆 Or one of the 6 in 10 foreign-owned rail companies serving the Greater London Area, including:

• Govia, ultimately owned by a mix of Canadian pensioners and Australian and Spanish companies, controls the Great Northern, Southern Rail and the Thameslink. 

• Arriva, a company registered in the tax-haven Cayman Islands, has Chiltern Railways and the London Overground in its portfolio. 

• First Group has the Great Western, and shares South Western with MTR, from Hong Kong

I could go on. 

The city skyline stores foreign treasure

It’s a curious thing, chaps: the city skyline stores foreign money.

🇨🇳 A Chinese businessman owns the Cheesegrater

🇨🇳 A Chinese company owns Lloyd’s of London 

🇭🇰The Walkie Talkie is the toy of a boy from Hong Kong. 

🇧🇷The Gherkin is owned by a Lebanese-Brazilian billionaire. 

🇶🇦The Qatar Investment Fund owns The Shard and Canary Wharf. 

Well, that’s fine. They’re skyscrapers. Wealthy men always own skyscrapers.  

What about… 

London attractions (TD; LR: not owned by Londoners)

You take in the hottest attractions. 

The King—or, at least, the Crown Fund—owns and manages most of them. This includes:

1. Buckingham Palace

2. Trafalgar Square

3. Green Park

4. Hyde Park

5. Westminster Abbey

6. Some shopping centres (like Gallagher Retail Park)

7. and most of Regent’s Street

8. And all the swans in the rivers and tributaries around Windsor. 

But the days of feudalism are (relatively) over. Our new overseas overlords own the sights and smells of our post-imperial capital. 

🇩🇰The London Eye and Madame Tussaud’s are owned by the same Danish family who gave us all Lego

🇶🇦 Qatar’s Sovereign Fund—essentially, all the citizens of that tiny desert country—owns Harrods and the Olympic Village

🇳🇴The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund owns Covent Garden 

🇮🇱Camden Market is now the property of an Israeli billionaire

🇲🇾Battersea Power Station is in Malaysian hands.

🎓And for some reason, Trinity College Cambridge owns the 02 Arena… 

But those are just the landmarks. 

What about… 

Getting a place to stay

There are some iconic hotels.

⛪The Church of England, strangely, owns the Royal Lancaster Hotel, a gorgeous five-star

🇶🇦  Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund owns the beautiful Claridges and the Chelsea Barracks.

There remains a touch of the feudal. 

The Duke of Westminister has a sizable property empire, valued at some £9.5 billion, totalling 300 acres of Belgravia and Mayfair. 

And who would forget to mention the City of London Corporation, which owns 17.4 million square feet of space, including Epping Forest, Hygate, and Hampstead Heath?

You may notice that 8 in every 100 houses are empty. Many of these are just ‘assets’ where businessmen store their wealth. 

Because, you glorious beasts, we’ve exchanged one set of overlords for another. In the first quarter of 2024, 27% of London properties were purchased by foreign nationals. 

As you stroll through London’s streets, you’ll notice the offices, half of which are owned by foreigners.

Chances are you’ll stay at a property owned by a Qatari. They own more of London than the Queen. Take the Emir of Qatar’s 21.5 million square feet of prime real estate, earning more rental income than all of London’s traditional property magnates. 

The trouble is that we don’t know who owns some of these houses. £40 billion worth of London properties are secretly owned. There are the 134 luxury mansions on Cadogan Square, Knightsbridge. Their ownership structure is so weird and opaque that no one knows who’s in charge. 

Who fuels London?

Pour yourself a glass of tap water courtesy of some investors from the UAE, Kuwait, China and Australia who own Thames Water (soon to be replaced by a big, fat American private equity firm).

See the beautiful lights of the city at night courtesy of:

🇫🇷 EDF Energy UK (100% owned by the government of France)

🇪🇸 Scottish Power (a Spanish company)

🇩🇪 E.ON UK (a German company)

🇨🇳 UK Power Networks (100% owned by a Chinese company)

🇺🇲And British Gas (American and British bankers). 

What’s the problem, exactly? 

London is a big, international city with a long history of foreigners coming here and building new lives. 

I don’t have a problem with that. But:

1. All the profits leave the country

Our new overlords aren’t playing fair. Nearly half the world’s FDI is held in tax havens. 

London is even more extreme. 

85% of business purchases in London real estate are routed through offshore accounts in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, and Panama. 

King Charles, meanwhile, pays income tax and surrenders all the money he makes from the Crown Estates to the Treasury in exchange for (rather sizable) pocket money, 25% of his income, an exchange dating back to the mid-18th century. 

But our new Qatari and Chinese overlords don’t pay taxes. 

No taxes means no revenue for the Treasury, which means no investment in London’s crumbling infrastructure. 

2. FDI inflates house prices

This one’s simple: FDI makes houses more expensive.

London’s prohibitively high house prices correlate with the rise of buy-to-let schemes sold to wealthy foreigners. 

I don’t know about you, but I think Londoners should benefit from homeownership—and no one else. 

3. It’s a moral outrage

Why do Londoners pay the French government for the luxury of having 100% higher energy bills than the rest of Europe? The French pay half of what we pay because Londoners subsidise their electricity. 

Why do Londoners pay Canadian pensioners for the right to have the highest rail fares in the world?

Why should minimum wage Londoners pay taxes while non-resident Qatari emirs pay nothing? 

It’s a national scandal: we’ve exchanged one set of overlords for another.

Yes, London owns the treasures of the world. But now the world owns London.