Jason Perry, who promised to “fix the finances” of cash-strapped Croydon Council when he was seeking votes to become the borough’s first elected Mayor in 2022, is hardly making a terrific success of managing the finances of his own family business.
Part-timer: while Tory Mayor Jason Perry seeks public office, he is still running a private business
Part-time Perry collects £82,000 per year as Croydon Mayor. Yet since May 2022, he has continued in the role of managing director of Carlton Building Plastics Ltd, while also holding directorships in at least two other companies, according to Companies House records.
In the past year, Perry did manage to reduce his own company’s liabilities. By a grand total of £24,000.
Croydon Council’s debts stand at £1.5billion – around the same amount as when Perry took office almost three years ago.
Looking at those Companies House official records, though, might be a cause for some alarm about the financial aptitude of the person who is nominally in charge of the borough’s business (although we all know that the government-appointed “improvement” panel has been pulling the strings since 2023).
Carlton Building Plastics Ltd was founded by Perry’s father, Michael Perry, in 1988. Based at Beddington Trading Park, it has traded steadily enough over the intervening years, but could never be described as a spectacular or inspired business success.
Bog standard might be the best way of describing it.
Steady, not spectacular: Carlton Building Plastics Ltd’s trading figures. While the price of building materials has soared over the past three years, Carlton’s been make less money
Since Jason Perry took on the management of the firm, it has shown signs of having a struggle to file its company accounts on time. Figures for the year ending December 31, 2023, were filed with Companies House just before Christmas – at least three months later than would usually be expected.
There might be a reason that the borough’s part-time Tory Mayor wanted to keep his business figures away from public gaze for as long as possible.
Classified at Companies House as being in the business for the “wholesale of wood, construction materials and sanitary equipment”, Carlton’s accounts are not any where near as titilating as portrayed in the timeless classic, Carry On At Your Convenience. Though some may think that pompous Perry does have a touch of the WC Boggs about him.
Going down the pan?: Carlton Business Plastics is a bog-standard company
The 2023 figures show a 50% drop in net current assets, something that is generally a red flag for any business, particularly one where the value of property, plant and equipment fell by nearly a quarter, while its inventory value increased. It could indicate difficulties in meeting operational expenses, paying suppliers and managing its stock effectively.
The 23% drop in net assets suggests the company is struggling to maintain its value, which could be due to poor performance, increased liabilities or market conditions.
On that point, while the pandemic wreaked havoc on the construction industry, construction material prices surged in 2022 and 2023 due to the supply disruptions arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, property transactions and construction investment slowed as crippling borrowing costs forced projects to get pushed back or cancelled.
Special delivery: a couple of Carlton’s trucks at their Beddingto base
Price rules competition among construction supplies wholesalers. Because there’s little to set different products apart, wholesalers compete fiercely on price, aiming to undercut competitors to attract business.
The fact that Carlton paid 45% less in Corporation Tax in 2023 compared to 2022 is probably the biggest and best indicator of how things stand with the Mayor’s family business. It’s not a sign of a thriving enterprise.
Perry would be well advised to mind his own business instead of slashing council services and going against his own manifesto commitment not to engage in “salami slicing budgets, which tend to hurt those most in need of Council support”.
Perry has been unusually quiet recently about another of his election promises, to re-open (note that: not to re-build) Purley Pool. Private developers Polaska are now expected to submit a revised planning application sometime early this year.
Mayor Perry has refused to come clean and helpfully identify who the business interests might be behind Polaska, from their murky, offshore tax-haven British Virgin Islands-based parent company. Might those new plans for the 220-unit “later living homes” on the site where the leisure centre and multi-storey car park include loads of construction materials and sanitary equipment?
Perhaps Mayor Perry can offer advice on where Polaska might source their building supplies?
Read more: GLA rejects Polaska Purley Pool plan as ‘wholly unacceptable’
Read more: Council axes Fieldway youth team two weeks before Christmas
Read more: Council puts the ‘sham’ into ‘shambolic’ over 4 closed libraries
Read more: Residents’ groups reject Purley ‘pool’ plan backed by Perry
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