Sir Thomas Stanley Thomas is a British businessman and property developer whos late father founded the catering company

Peter's Food Services Peter's Food Service is a Bedwas, Wales based baker and supplier of pies, pasties, slices, sausage rolls and factored products into retail, food service, catering and hospitality outlets across the United Kingdom. Today it is one of the largest em ...

. In 2013 the Sunday Times estimated his net worth jointly with his brother Peter at £230 million.

Controversy over land sales

In 2015 the

Wales Audit Office Audit Wales (), formally the Wales Audit Office (WAO, ), is an independent public body which was established by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; , formerly the National Assembly for Wales) on 1 April 2005. It has overall responsibility for auditing on ...

reported that taxpayers may have lost out on millions of pounds in the sale of government-owned land to companies owned by Thomas, through sales not advertised on the open market.

Andrew RT Davies Andrew Robert Tudor Davies CBE (born 1968) is a British politician serving as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd since 2021, previously holding the position from 2011 to 2018. He has been a Member of the Senedd (MS) since 2007 ...

, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, commented, "It's an absolute disgrace... millions of pounds

ave ''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...

been lost to the public purse as a result of this land sale." He commented that it may have been the biggest-ever financial loss to the taxpayer in a single transaction. The Wales Audit Office reported that the government-owned

Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

sold 15 pieces of land in 2012 for £21.7 million to

South Wales Land Developments South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

(SWLD), a firm financed by a Guernsey-based company owned by Thomas. But the district valuer estimated that the individual pieces of land were in fact together worth £36 million. In addition, around 120 acres of farmland in Cardiff were sold privately to SWLD for £2 million, while the land's value on the open market should have been around £20 million. Just four months after the sale,

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...

published a planning blueprint that increased the market value of the same land to £120 million - 60 times the original sale price of the land. The Wales Audit Office report concluded that there were significant flaws throughout the sale process. Thomas refused to be interviewed for the report.

References

Living people 20th-century British businesspeople 21st-century British businesspeople 20th-century Welsh businesspeople 21st-century Welsh businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-business-bio-stub