A politician who helped investigate the city's property crisis is linked to a stalled site.
Councillor Abdul Qadir was a member of a Liverpool council taskforce set up to investigate buyer-funded property schemes in the city, known as fractional sales. Fractional schemes, where buyers put down large deposits to finance off-plan apartment schemes, attracted huge controversy following the collapse of high profile projects.
The task and finish committee had a broad remit and also looked at failed property schemes across the city. The ECHO can now reveal that Cllr Qadir is linked to a large stalled scheme on Vauxhall Road in Vauxhall through his role with the Liverpool-based Vega Group, which owns MV Canal, the subsidiary company behind the scheme.
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The Liverpool based Vega Group owns MV Canal, a subsidiary company behind a large stalled scheme on Vauxhall Road in Vauxhall. Cllr Qadir declared his interest in the Vega Trading Group and MV Canal on the council's register of interests.
Cllr Qadir said that his role with Vega Trading had not conflicted with his role as a councillor on various committees including the fractional taskforce. He said that his sole role with the company was to oversee imports and exports. He said that the MV Canal scheme on Vauxhall Road was not fractional.
Cllr Richard Kemp, who served on the fractional taskforce, said he was 'appalled' to learn that Cllr Qadir was a director of a property company linked to a stalled site. Cllr Kemp has asked the Mayor and city solicitor to look at whether he should have declared an interest.
An ECHO investigation has revealed that:
- Cllr Qadir has been a director of Vega Group company Vega Trading since September 2014.
- A council officer emailed Cllr Qadir in February 2018 advising him that MV Canal owed the local authority a Section 106 payment ( money paid by developers to benefit the community) worth £57,000.
- Cllr Qadir signed the Section 106 agreement between MV Canal and Liverpool Council as a witness.
- Vega Trading, the company Cllr Qadir works for, helped finance MV Canal with a number of large loans worth £250,000.
- Cllr Qadir was a director of Vega Construction, the builders in charge of the stalled site in Vauxhall, for three months in 2016.
There is now growing concern about the MV Canal project on the banks of the Leeds to Liverpool Canal in Vauxhall. Last month firefighters were called out to a blaze at the site, which appears to be derelict.
North Liverpool community activist Kevin Robinson Hale said: "I work in Vauxhall and locals have said it's vandalised on an almost daily basis. It is a massive shame. The windows are all smashed and I understand there have been a few small fires on the site."
Cllr Qadir, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, is a former member of the city's regeneration and sustainability committee. Cllr Qadir has said that he does not recall declaring his interest in the Vega Group before any of the committee meetings he has attended and chaired over the years.
The Vega Group is controlled by businessman Sami Labidi.
Cllr Qadir said: "I first met Sami Labidi while studying at university. We became firm friends and I later visited his family in Tunisia.
"The family owned a successful business that ran several factories. I was impressed with the ethical way in which the family ran the business. I agreed to become a director of Vega Trading. My role, which is paid, is to oversee the import and export of various products across Europe.
"For example I sold a cheese factory in north Wales.
"After the Arab Spring the Labidi family decided to invest in the UK due to the unrest at home.
"However my role was import and export. The email from the council officer did not reach me because it was sent to the wrong email address. I had not seen it before.
"I signed the S106 agreement because I was the only person in the office at the time.
"I understand the MV Canal scheme stalled after Sami's father died. The death interrupted the running of the company and the finances.
"And after that Covid arrived which caused further delays. In my view my role at Vega Trading was not relevant to my committee work with Liverpool City Council. My tenure on the Regeneration and Sustainability Committee did not conflict with my role at Vega Trading.
"There has been no conflict of interest with my current role as cabinet member for Neighbourhoods."
Cllr Kemp said: “I am so appalled at this that I have referred the matter to Mayor Joanne Anderson as Labour Group Leader and the city solicitor for both of them to examine whether or not Cllr Qadir should have declared an interest on a number of occasions and whether internal and external disciplinary action should be taken.
"It is quite clear to me that as someone who works for a developer within the city, he should have gone nowhere near the 'fractional investment task group'. The fact that he claims that the failed development with which he has been associated was not financed in this way is irrelevant.
"Many of the interviews that we conducted with outside organisations yielded information that would have been of interest to any developer.
"Over the past seven years we have debated on many occasions the problems of stalled developments in the city, what to do about them, problems with our Local Plan and the problems associated with £4.5 million of S106 money that hasn’t been collected. I cannot recall Cllr Qadir declaring an interest on any of the occasions that these matters have been discussed."
Cllr Kemp claimed Cllr Qadir was in breach of the Nolan principles, which apply to all holders of a public office. The principles are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
He said: "I would like the Mayor and the city solicitor to give a view on whether Cllr Qadir's actions are in line with a number of Nolan principles which guide the council.
"Ironically, he is the Cabinet Member who has been given the job or revising the constitution of the Council and raising the standards of public life in the Council after the scandals of the past decade”
The ECHO asked Mr Labidi if MV Canal owed any money to the council.
He said: "I am not aware of any outstanding invoices. The scheme stalled following the death of my father. Then coronavirus hit."
A spokesperson for the fire service confirmed they were called out to an arson-related incident at the site on July 24. The ECHO approached Liverpool Council for comment.
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