A luxury hotel owned by the Qatari royal family is under investigation after failing to build affordable homes in London.
Westminster city council is carrying out an enforcement investigation into The Emory, in Knightsbridge, after it failed to build 13 affordable homes as promised.
The construction of homes for lower-income families was agreed as part of a deal to grant planning permission for the hotel in 2019.
However, the council’s planning team has established that the homes were never built and that The Emory, which opened to the public two years ago, is using the space designated as part of the hotel itself.
A land swap was proposed in 2021, with 13 affordable homes to be delivered instead at a site on Sussex Gardens, near Paddington. However, those homes have also not been built.
The Emory, which charges guests £1,600 a night, is owned by Qatari royals Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
Their hotel interests are managed through Maybourne Hotels, the portfolio of which also includes Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley. The Qataris bought a controlling interest in Maybourne from the Barclay family, the former owners of The Telegraph, and Derek Quinlan, an Irish businessman, in 2015.
The Westminster council investigation casts the spotlight on one of London’s most powerful landlords at a time when the capital faces a chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Affordable housing obligations attached to luxury developments – known as Section 106 agreements – are a central plank of Westminster’s planning policy and are designed to ensure that high-end projects contribute to housing supply for lower-income Londoners.
