Rent at a plush flat owned by Jeremy Hunt soared by 18%, as the senior Tory was urging pay restraint for everyone else, we can reveal.
Tenants who moved into the millionaire Chancellor’s apartment last summer were charged £300 more a month than previous ones. High demand for homes due to the Tory housing crisis and soaring inflation had sparked a bidding war and sent the rental price soaring.
Our investigation with campaign group Led By Donkeys comes as the Cabinet minister prepares to deliver his autumn Budget, with millions still struggling to pay bills in the crippling cost of living crisis.
We discovered previous tenants at the flat in Southampton owned by Mr Hunt and his wife Lucia Guo’s firm Mare Pond Properties Limited were paying rent of £1,700 a month. When they moved out in August last year, letting agents put it on the market for £1,850 a month, a 9% hike.
We were told a number of offers were rejected in the bidding war and the winner ended up paying more than £2,000 per month. The 18% increase was almost twice the rate of inflation at the time.
The housing crisis has led to rent rises averaging 10% over the past year. TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “It is one rule for the rich and powerful, and another rule for everybody else.
“The Chancellor has stayed silent while property speculators and landlords have imposed inflation-busting rents. But he and other ministers has repeatedly told workers not to ask for a cost-of-living pay rise, despite many facing soaring housing costs.”
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones added: “Jeremy Hunt’s calls for people to make shared sacrifices and show restraint in order to tackle inflation were clearly just his words not his actions. It says everything you need to know about this Tory Chancellor.”
In October 2022, weeks after Mr Hunt’s new tenants moved in he had been made Chancellor and warned “we’re going to have to be asking for sacrifices from everyone to get through a very difficult period”.
In December, he argued for pay restraint in the public sector. He said: “I recognise there are very sincerely held positions by people in the public sector. But the Government too has a sincerely held concern, not to lock in high inflation that is the root cause of their anger.”
In another interview, he added: “We just have to be really careful not to agree to pay demands that have the opposite of the intended effect because they lock in high inflation.” In June, Mr Hunt met industry regulators to ensure that price rises were “fair” and not undermining government attempts to cut inflation.
Research has found 87 MPs are landlords, 68 of them Tories, including Mr Hunt. He bought seven flats in Southampton for £3.6million through Mare Pond Properties Limited. Set up in September 2017, it has had one sole director since, Ms Guo. Land Registry documents show the firm spent £3.57million buying flats which cost from £437,000 to £685,000 in 2018. The accounts reveal nothing about its takings or profits.
We have established the rent for Hunt’s portfolio range from £1,600 to £2,000 a month per flat. That means his buy-to-let company collects around £150,000 a year in rent - almost the same as his combined £159,000 salary as a Cabinet minister and MP.
Mr Hunt declined to comment on the money his company was making from the apartments or how much rents had increased.
A spokesman for the Chancellor said: “All profits from Mare Pond Properties are donated to charity, as previously confirmed.” But he would not confirm the amount donated, when the donations were made or which charity or charities had benefitted.
Mr Hunt is one of the richest MPs after he sold Hotcourses, the education firm he co-founded, for £14.5million in 2017. He admitted failing to declare his 50% stake in Mare Pond Properties with both Companies House and the MPs’ register of interests for six months, claiming it was an “honest mistake”.
Mr Hunt’s register of interests show he also owns half shares in a holiday house in Italy and an office building in London, both of which he lets out. He owns a “portfolio of shares” which have been held in a “blind trust” since 2019.