The work of the General Post Office, London, October 1941. Wikicommons/ Ministry of Information Second World War Official Collection. Some rights reserved
In 2014, Private Eye – the UK’s irreverent and much-loved current affairs magazine – began publishing a series of stories on the extent to which land and property in the UK is owned by companies registered overseas.
The revelations – which included the eye-popping extent to which the owners of London’s most recognisable landmarks and smartest addresses have used offshore tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands to conceal dubious wealth and avoid tax – were made possible by information obtained by Private Eye from HM Land Registry (HMLR) under Freedom of Information law. In total, HMLR released details of over 90,000 titles registered with them between July 2005 and July 2014 by foreign firms.
