INSIDE SUTTON: Confidential documents show that the council has done a property deal for two of the borough’s historic buildings with an offshore company linked to the developer responsible for the long-neglected Fox and Hounds pub on Carshalton High Street.
EXCLUSIVE By BERTIE WORCESTER-PARK
Gone cheap: the Old Rectory, flogged off by Sutton Council for £535,000
The Liberal Democrats in charge of Sutton Council promised many years ago that they would never sell off the borough’s historic buildings. Only the Conservatives wanted to flog the family silver, they said.
Yet many of the same LibDem councillors in Sutton have just rubbered stamped the sale of two of the borough’s finest buildings: the Grade II*-listed Old Rectory in Carshalton, and the Russettings, the large, Victorian era house used until last year as the council’s registry office and wedding venue.
Inside Sutton can reveal that the buyer in both cases is an offshore company, Nelson Insurance Company Ltd, based in Gibraltar.
Inside Sutton has seen official council documents which show that The Russettings was sold for £1.8million and the Old Rectory for £535,000.
The effective owner of Nelson Insurance is Andrew Hussey, a businessman who also runs a company called AJH Property Developments Ltd. AJH Property Developments Ltd owns The Fox and Hounds, the big old pub in the middle of Carshalton High Street that has been allowed to slowly decay into an eyesore since it closed in February 2017.
Left to rot: The Fox and Hounds pub closed in 2017 and was bought by a property developer who has since done nothing with it
The company bought the pub site for £2.3million in May 2017. Nelson Insurance holds a mortgage charge over AJH Property Developments for £2million.
The sad fate of this dilapidated site at the heart of Carshalton High Street has been a growing concern for neighbouring businesses and residents for several years. So the reaction from locals on discovering that Sutton Council has now sold two of its most cherished heritage buildings to a group closely connected to the owners of The Fox and Hounds has been met with astonishment and, it is fair to say, outright anger.
The fact that Sutton Council made the purchase of Russettings conditional on Nelson Insurance also buying the Old Rectory, free of any planning conditions other than those imposed by national and local listings, will make conservation groups in Sutton even more anxious.
Record of disaster: Richard Simpson
The decision to sell the Russettings and Old Rectory to companies linked to Hussey was taken by Richard Simpson, the council’s finance chief.
That’s the same Richard Simpson who also oversaw the “due diligence” when Sutton awarded a £37million contract at Beech Tree Place to a building company that went bust after a few months. And that’s the same Richard Simpson who, in his time in a senior position at Croydon had a key role in establishing the Brick by Brick development company that went spectacularly bust and bankrupted the council.
It is not clear what kind of “due diligence” process Sutton Council and Simpson undertook in deciding that the Russettings and the Old Rectory could be sold to the same people who have overseen the dilapidation of The Fox and Hounds.
Hussey is a successful and wealthy businessman, an insurance professional who specialises in policies for chauffeurs and private hire operators. His DCL and Nelson operations at 19 West Street, Carshalton, are significant local employers. His charitable trust has donated to disabled football at Sutton United, St Raphael’s Hospice and homelessness charity Sutton Nightwatch.
Seven-year planning saga
There has been much more going on behind the scenes of The Fox and Hounds than has ever before been shared with the public, in a seven-year planning saga that does not reflect well on Sutton Council.
Successful: Andrew Hussey, pictured when winning a trade award in 2012
Inside Sutton understands there have been numerous pre-application meetings between the owners and council planners, with proposals including partial demolition and conversion to offices and flats.
In 2015, before the building changed hands and while the pub was still trading, planning permission was granted for the part-demolition of the building, retaining the facade while adding four flats above the pub in addition to staff accommodation.
In May 2017, a not dissimilar application was submitted by AJH Property, but this proposed demolishing the pub and erecting a three- and four-storey office building. Public records show that this application was neither granted nor refused, but a “response issued” after more than two years, in July 2019. There are no records available to explain what happened.
The adoption of a Carshalton Conservation Area local plan in October 2019 also tightened the guidelines on development. And then came 2020 and the covid pandemic.
Planning update: Elliot Colburn, then MP for Carshalton and Wallington, said last July that a planning application was expected later in 2024. Since when…
It was then not until June 2024, when the then-MP for Carshalton and Wallington, Elliot Colburn, reported that essential maintenance was being undertaken at The Fox and Hounds site. He said he expected a new planning application by the end of the year. Since then, nothing.
It has been suggested that one of the brakes on development may have been influence from conservation groups who want the site to remain as a pub or be turned into an “asset of community value”. This overlooks the hostile business environment in the hospitality sector since covid, in which pubs are closing on a daily basis. Competition for pub customers in Carshalton is already very keen.
“Bloody-mindedness seems to be a common factor between Hussey and the council, which means nothing is getting done,” a council source told Inside Sutton.
Rodger Molyneux, one of the founders of The Hope community pub on West Street and who manages the Cryer Arts theatre and bar complex on Carshalton High Street, believes The Fox and Hounds building “is not saveable”.
Molyneux said: “It has no future as a pub.” He described trading conditions for his own venues as “difficult”.
He said: “Wearing my Carshalton Society hat, we would like to see something nice on that site and have seen some nice plans. We would expect possibly a dozen or so flats with some retail underneath, eventually.”
The intentions of the new owner of the Old Rectory and the Russettings are as yet unknown. The council has said that the new owners want to use the Old Rectory as offices.
Off the register: Sutton has sold its registry office building, the Russettings, for £1.8m
For the Russettings, “the offer at £1.8million represents best consideration when considering the planning risk from alternative bidders”, an internal council report said.
“The potential renovation of this property to preserve this locally listed property and enhance the state of repair and condition of the property long into the future.” Note that: potential renovation.
Sutton Council has moved its registry and wedding offering into the Civic Offices in Sutton, where newly married couples can gaze out on to the council car park and the Holiday Inn.
The Old Rectory, a 13-room 18th century Georgian house retains many original features. The council had found its maintenance costs an increasing burden, and first began seeking alternative uses – or owners – for it six years ago. Its Grade II*-listing means the buyer will incur considerable expense as well as constraints in converting or restoring the building.
There were potential alternative buyers. The Carshalton Old Rectory Association made overtures to acquire the house to retain its historic value, but negotiations with the council failed.
Read more: Sutton puts Carshalton’s Grade II*-listed Old Rectory up for sale
Read more: Plan to turn listed Old Rectory into flats could ‘end in disaster’
Read more: Charity for elderly at centre of fraud is forced to close down
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This is disgraceful. The sale to these guys is shameful.
It seems that, once again, nepotism and incompetence or greed trump the public interest. Public servants are there to serve the public and look after the best interests of the plebiscite. It is clear that these public servants have not upheld the best interest of the public.
Where’s the nepotism?
Oh goodie. Yet more flats for Sutton. Have we forgotten how to build proper homes, and can only manage to build small boxes?