HAB Land Ltd goes bust – Grand Designs presenter walks away
Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4 TV’s Grand Designs series, fronted money-raising for an eco-property developer, and then resigned as a director 18 months before the company went bust this week.
The picture is still unclear because there is a web of interlocked shareholdings, but many small investors have lost money and McCloud and his colleagues are continuing to trade through different vehicles.
Both building projects in Oxford and Winchester are controlled by two subsidiary companies – HAB at Lovedon Fields Limited and Hab at The Acre Limited – neither of which are part of the proposed liquidation.
‘The directors of these entities continue to explore options to enable these developments to be completed,’ the spokesperson continued.
‘HAB Housing Limited is also unaffected by the liquidation proceedings.’
Mr McCloud is a significant shareholder in the HAB network of companies, remaining a director of HAB Housing and owning 20 per cent of HAB Land’s parent company, BAH Restructuring.
TV star and developer McCloud had already come under fire from a city councillor in Winchester where his project ran into difficulties almost a year ago, as community facilities promised as part of a development are yet to be completed.
That comes as investors in the Happiness Architecture Beauty (HAB) housing venture, launched by the Grand Designs host, voiced frustration at warnings they could lose up to 97% of their cash.
Happiness Architecture Beauty
HAB Land Limited was founded in 2014 to acquire development land for building projects at sites in Oxford and Winchester.
HAB Land Finance plc was subsequently incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the company in 2016, in order to raise finance to fund the real estate activities of HAB Land through Mini Bond Instruments.
*** Did you invest in HAB Land, Hab Housing, or a related company? Do you live in a HAB development? Email news@off-grid.net, call 07971543703***
The first reports of the possible demise of the McCloud empire came from the Hampshire Chronicle, a local paper reporting on broken promises at the Lovedon Fields development in Kings Worthy seven months ago, and from local ward councillor Jackie Porter, cabinet member for built environment and wellbeing at Winchester City Council, who said works were going “very, very slowly,” and were “nowhere near finished.”
“We want to see this site completed. We chose it because it had great public facilities. The residents of Kings Worthy are being let down.
“[Mr McCloud] had good intentions but it was naive. This project was much more complicated than it was meant to be.”
The developer HAB Housing agreed – as part of the planning approval – its location in Eversley Park would double in size. The land would then be given to Kings Worthy Parish Council to protect it from future development.
Chaos in Winchester
The site, off Lovedon Lane in Kings Worthy, was given planning approval in September 2015, and …