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
|
|
