Union leader faces questions over deal on rented flat

[Albus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/18/unite-tony-woodley

The joint leader of the country's biggest trade union is expected to face questioning today by his national executive over demands he has made for nearly £100,000 to vacate a heavily subsidised London flat which was purchased by a personal acquaintance in a deal worth £1m.

Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, which represents some of the lowest paid workers in the United Kingdom and is now bankrolling the Labour party, is to be asked to explain his role in the deal, which was originally a sale between another union and a commercial company.

Papers and memos seen by the Guardian over the sale of the property, a historic building near Elephant and Castle in south London, reveal that Woodley has been living there for 15 years at a fixed rent of £200 a month with all his electricity and heating bills included.

Unite's national executive is likely to ask why this deal has never been declared in the union's annual return to the certification officer of trade unions as "a benefit in kind" and whether the HM Revenue and Customs are aware of it.

His fellow joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, declares an annual benefit in kind over a house provided for him by the union in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

The documents reveal:

• The flat has never been registered as a residential dwelling so Woodley has never paid any council tax on it.

• It was granted to him as an inter-union favour by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU).

• The CSEU was negotiating to sell the commercial offices and the flat to a Scottish property company, Unicorn Developments, and offered him £15,000 to quit it.

• After much negotiating they later raised this to £55,000 but suddenly, to the company's solicitors' surprise, the Transport and General Workers Union – as part of Unite – made an identical offer for the same building.

• Then a private company in Woodley's home town in Merseyside, Purple Apple, which also has a contract to manage the TGWU properties, made a higher offer. Documents show that the sale was made personally to the late Gerry White, then director of the firm and who the union confirm was a long standing acquaintance of Woodley's. The commercial firm pulled out.

An internal memo from the solicitor for Unicorn Developments at one stage says: "Mr Woodley is T&G general secretary and so cannot try to negotiate terms of settlement with us for himself as an individual while at the same time offering against us to buy the building for the union and all the time seeking to turn up the heat.

"T&G would not be bidding to purchase or involved at all if it were not for Mr Woodley occupying the top-floor service accommodation. It seems that the union bidding £100,000 plus expenses just to satisfy the general secretary as an individual and all over a one-bedroom service flat which was let to him in good faith at a peppercorn rent by the trustees of CSEU is rather strange."

A spokesman for Unite said: "Tony Woodley is still negotiating compensation with the company that bought the building, which he is entitled to do as a sitting tenant. The final figure looks like being between £60,000 and £75,000.

"The person who bought the property on behalf of Purple Apple, Gerry White, was an old acquaintance of Tony Woodley – they knew each other through Vauxhall Motors football club – but he is no longer alive. Purple Apple has since been divided into two companies and the company that owns the building is not the same one that has the maintenance contract with Unite.

"We did not see any reason to report the rent as a benefit in kind to the certification office as it was not a benefit from his own employer but from a third party."

The spokesman added: " I am not able to comment about the issue of council tax."