Council leader defends house purchase after questions raised

Nesil Caliskan bought a house from the local company after its new headquarters were built on a council car park, reports James Cracknell

The leader of Enfield Council has defended his decision to buy a house from a local company which struck a multi-million pound deal with the civic center three years ago.

Nesil Caliskan – who is also now a Labor parliamentary candidate in Barking – purchased a four bed terraced property from Metaswitch in June 2021.

Three months earlier the firm had moved into its new £27m office block in Genotin Road, on a former council car park, although the deal was conceived and negotiated before Cllr Caliskan became council leader in May 2018.

The council leader said he did not know who the sellers of his house were until the exchange of contracts took place and that the purchase “was done through an agent”. She also emphasized that she “had no involvement in the financial or legal arrangements.”

The timing of the purchase also means that any negotiations over the purchase of the house would have taken place years after the council had ended its business dealings with Metaswitch over its new offices.

However, the council leader was criticized by two of her former Labor colleagues, as well as the leader of the Conservative group in Enfield, for not being more transparent about the purchase.

Land registers show the house was bought by Cllr Caliskan and her husband for £530,000, with several senior figures from Metaswitch – acquired by Microsoft four years ago – listed as sellers, along with the pension fund company’s.

The deal between Metaswitch and the council to build a new headquarters on Genotin Road Car Park has seen the civic center fund build the five-storey office building and agree a 15-year lease with the company.

council office, in July 2018, voted to “grant an institutional lease for a Grade A office building to Metaswitch Networks Limited and finance the development of that building, at an acceptable rate of return, whilst retaining this major employer and business in Enfield Town”. Plans for the new offices have been approved by the council’s planning committee in November 2018 and the building became operational in March 2021.

There is no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of Cllr Caliskan, who was not required to declare details of the purchase on her council’s register of interests beyond the fact that she owned the property in question, which she did.

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However, former Labor cabinet member Alan Sitkin, who initially pushed the council to find a new site for Metaswitch and help keep the company in the borough, told Dispatch: “It is unusual for a public official to do private business with an entity with which the council has worked in the public interest.

“Public and private interests are expected to be kept separate.”

Former councilor Daniel Anderson, who was deputy to Cllr Caliskan in her first year in charge but later left the Labor group in protest at her leadership style, also criticized the council leader’s “lack of judgement” with regarding the purchase of the house.

And Alessandro Georgiou, leader of the opposition Conservative group at Enfield Civic Centre, said the council leader still had “serious questions to answer”.

Asked by Dispatch what steps he had taken during the process of buying the house to ensure there was no conflict of interest, Cllr Caliskan said: “The council first entered into an agreement with Metaswitch before I became leader. I had no involvement in the financial or legal arrangements, which were all run by council officers.

“The price paid for the house reflected the mortgage bank’s valuation and the property was purchased through an agent – we only learned the names of the owners during the exchange.

“I wasn’t in cabinet in 2017 so I wouldn’t have been involved in detailed conversations about it. I was delighted to see Metaswitch move to the Enfield Town site because of the huge benefits it has brought to the local economy.”

A council spokesman said: “At no time did any councilor participate in any financial or legal negotiations with Metaswitch or their agents. Independent professional advisers led the negotiations and GVA Grimley advised the board on the value of the transaction and gave the board confidence that it had obtained the best value.

“Discussions with Metaswitch began several years ago and a decision to enter financial and legal negotiations was agreed in November 2017, six months before Cllr Caliskan became leader of Enfield Council.

“The councilor code of conduct requires members to register an interest in any land and not name the person they bought it from.
“Metaswitch’s move to new premises on Genotin Road has brought huge benefits to residents and the local economy, and the borough continues to reap these benefits. Metaswitch, which has been based in Enfield for more than 20 years, is a valued long-term employer in the district, employing more than 400 people, of whom around 200 live locally. Their new global headquarters was completed in 2021, providing a much-needed boost to the local economy following the Covid-19 pandemic and providing regular rental income to the local authority on a 15-year lease.”

Metaswitch has been contacted for comment but has yet to respond.

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