The jewish chronicle
February 18, 2010
By Candice Krieger
The Newcastle property tycoon caught up in a Labour donations scandal in 2007 says he won’t let the furore tarnish his plan to transform his region.
By Candice Krieger, February 18, 2010
David Abrahams’s 20-year project could provide 8,000 new jobs.
David Abrahams’s 20-year project could provide 8,000 new jobs
David Abrahams is known to many as the businessman at the centre of a Labour Party donations scandal in 2007. But if the property entrepreneur - who reportedly gave £650,000 to Labour in other people's names so as to remain anonymous - pulls off his current property scheme, he will be remembered in far a more positive light: for having transformed the economy of the north east.
Mr Abrahams, 55, is developing his Durham Green Business Park, a
£1 billion, 540-acre development which could create 8,000 new jobs. Mr Abrahams is investing all his own money in the site. Located close to the A1, Durham Green will accommodate up to 92,000 sq ft of business space. He says he intends to give away all profits from the project, either investing them back into the region or donating to charitable causes. Mr Abrahams says his interest lies solely in boosting the north east.
The millionaire's reputation took a battering when it was suggested that he funded the Labour Party in order to push through planning applications for his business park. But Mr Abrahams is keen to stress that his conscience is clear. He says: "There was no controversy over the park at all because the park got planning on merit from a Liberal Democrat authority. I don't need to give money at the back door to get permission.
"I wasn't even dealing with the planners, it was all my consultants. The technicalities of a planning application for a scheme of this magnitude are way above my head. I mean, no way. Everything I have done has been in an exemplary manner. I don't work on a local authority because it would be a conflict of interest.
"Journalists were digging around planning authorities in the north east, but the only thing they found was the planning application for the front porch for my house.
"I wouldn't dream of doing anything untoward because it would only wreck my scheme."
Mr Abrahams was granted planning permission last May for the first 75-acre phase of the development. Once this is complete, he will start work on the rest of the project, which, he says, will take 20 years to complete.
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