As Europe descends into war, the links between the UK and financial dealings of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle have been put under a much-needed spotlight, writes Ben Flatman
The UK is widely recognised as “the money laundering capital of the world据估计，每年伦敦金融城有多达900亿英镑的黑钱被洗白。这些财富大部分被腐败的政府官员和偷税漏税的“商人”从地球上一些最贫穷的国家剥夺了。
It is also widely accepted that a lot of this money finds its way into UK property, most notably the super-prime London residential market.
The 2020 Treasury and Home Office’s ownnational risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financingstates that “corrupt foreign elites continue to be attracted to the UK property market, especially in London, to disguise their corruption proceeds”.
For decades now the London property market in particular has been treated as a convenient place to stash this loot, contributing to the huge number ofunoccupiedluxury dwellings in the centre of the capital. With some of the lowest wealth and property taxes of any major, rich country – and conveniently opaque rules on ownership – the UK has deliberately cultivated an environment designed to attract global “investors”. Dodgy money looking for a secure home has been welcomed with as few questions asked as possible.
As it then sloshes through our own economy, this money sustains an entire British professional services ecosystem that is dedicated to protecting the illicit earnings of some of the world’s most successful criminals. And if, as an architect, you have ever wondered who could possibly afford the eye-wateringly priced apartments you are working late nights to deliver the tender package for, the answer may be very simple – the criminal and the corrupt.
A tangled network of offshore companies and holding entities makes it almost impossible to find out precisely who owns what
As Europe descends into war, the links between the UK and the financial dealings of Vladimir Putin’s nefarious inner circle have been put under a much-needed spotlight. For years the British government has dragged its feet on requiring greater transparency about the ownership of assets in the UK.
离岸公司和控股实体错综复杂的网络，让任何试图调查这一问题的人几乎不可能准确地找出谁拥有什么。尽管存在这些障碍，英国透明国际组织发现，俄罗斯人购买了价值15亿英镑的房地产资产，这些资产被“指控腐败或与克里姆林宫有关联”。As the organisation states on itswebsite, this is likely to be just the “tip of the iceberg”.
Now, at long last, the government has announced that it will move forward with the creation of apublic registerof ultimate owners of UK property assets. But why has the government tolerated this state of affairs for so long?
Could it be partly related to the extremely murky world ofparty politicalfinance in this country? The importance of illegal money to the professional services sector and even topprivate schoolsshould perhaps also not be underestimated.
But the desperate need to attract money from overseas is also rooted in the UK’s need to fund its staggering current account deficit. The balance of payments gap between what UK plc spends overseas and the income it generates has been growing for decades.
British governments used to obsess over it, until the 1980s when economists decided that a balanced, export-led economy was no longer necessary. Instead of making goods to sell, Britain would rely on selling financial instruments and services, and assets like property. As a direct consequence, manufacturing was allowed to whither, and the economy became ever more deeply unbalanced, both structurally and geographically.
近年来，房地产已成为这一失败战略中越来越重要的一部分。虽然我们不能创造出更多的土地来出售，但领空的供应几乎是无限的。
By allowing a rush to high-rise residential development, Britain has tried to tap into what many thought was an insatiable desire for luxury London apartments. However, as Nine Elms and the regeneration of Battersea Power Station has demonstrated, there may actually be a limit to how much of this sort of cynical property development the UK can flog to overseas investors.
This whole system has contributed to the economic imbalance between North and South, as well as to the grossly iniquitous rise in house prices across the UK. Belatedly the government is waking up to the structural damage it has done to the UK economy as a whole.
For too long we have relied on dirty money to help paper over the underlying weaknesses in the British economy
The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee has now noted that a whole industry exists in London to enable “the extension of Russian influence which is often linked to promoting the nefarious interests of the Russian state”. As Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption puts it: “Russians don’t come here for the weather, but instead for our lax regulation, pathetic law enforcement and a property market that is ripe for abuse.”
有一点显然非常重要，那就是大多数在英国的外国投资者都是完全合法的，仅仅因为有人是俄罗斯人，并不意味着他们是普京犯罪盗贼统治的一部分。但越来越难以忽视的是，来自英国以外的腐败资金已经渗透到我们的金融和政治文化中。
For too long we have relied on dirty money to help paper over the underlying weaknesses in the British economy. It has distorted our politics and contributed to the creation of our highly dysfunctional and iniquitous housing sector. So, the question is, can we now wean ourselves off it?
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