Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08 - Foreign Affairs Committee Contents


Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from the Permanent Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE IN DUBLIN

  Thank you for your letter of 26 June in which you ask for more detailed figures on the purchase and sale of Marlay Grange and the sale and attempts to repurchase Glencairn.

  I attach a spreadsheet giving details of the transactions covering the Dublin residence. The net result of all transactions remains a credit to the FCO of £21,028,596, given that the sale of Glencairn was the reason for acquiring Marlay Grange and this figure is therefore included to give a complete picture. On the Marlay Grange transactions only, we incurred a loss of £1,378,592 when all the running costs for the property from 1999 (fees, maintenance and security) are deducted.

  Meanwhile, as you know, we remain in possession of Glencairn under a delayed completion sale agreement, as we have done since January 1999. We pay no rent and the developer retains the final completion sum—no other costs have been incurred. Following our letter of 30 October, we have no further progress to report in possible reacquisition of the property. This arrangement offers the best value for money in current circumstances and allows us to keep our options open for the future.

  In our research for this letter, we have discovered that further preparatory work was conducted for the sale of Glencairn, adding to the cost that we have previously disclosed, for example in reply to Mr Mackinlay's Parliamentary Question (Hansard 192W). In addition, we believe that VAT may have been charged in 1999 which was almost certainly reclaimed by the Embassy at the time but we have no means of verifying this data.

  The figures for the cost of securing the Marlay Grange property are also higher than given in response to Mr Mackinlay's Parliamentary Question (Hansard 193W) since these costs continued after the date of reply to the question.

22 July 2008


Details
Receipt (£)
Expenditure (£)

Sale of Glencairn Estate—monies received
18,658,418
Sale of Glencairn Estate—outstanding amount*
4,030,159
Costs of disposal of Glencairn estate (legal and agents fees, site survey and marketing costs plus VAT)**
281,389
Purchase of Marlay Grange
6,258,312
Purchase costs of Marlay Grange
86,776
Minor maintenance works, design fees and asbestos removal and security for Marlay Grange
1,281,869
Sale of Marlay Grange
6,469,066
Sale costs of Marlay Grange (legal/agents fees)
220,701
Totals
29,157,643
8,129,047

Net credit balance
21,028,596

*Estimated receipt of monies still owing. Final figure will depend on €/£ exchange rate.
**Fees were paid in 1999 and 2000 but records with exact figures are archived and no longer readily available, including details of a possible VAT refund
  
18 July 2008







 
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