Sir,
Sir,
Chris Koenig has written two very interesting articles on the supposed 'charitable status' of Oxford University Press (OUP status attacked, 16th May and Tenants 'have no right to buy' says university, 23rd May), but has not mentioned the key fact: that when OUP built the two estates for its workers in the 1950s and 1960s, it was most definitely not a charity.
On the contrary, for OUP had several times sought tax-exemption and been roundly rebuffed. In 1940 the Special Commissioners firmly concluded that OUP's book trading in the open market took it outside the charitable purposes defined for the university itself, a verdict repeated throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
When, in 1978, OUP did finally and win its tax concession, it was courtesy of its local tax officers, was carefully hushed up, and was conditional upon it ploughing any and all of its surpluses back into non-commercial publishing, a condition it has since signally failed to honour. But as was recently pointed out by the Charity Commissioners themselves, this dubious tax break, in any case, does not make OUP a charity. It has never applied for charity status and has no registration number. Ergo, the leaseholders of Jordan Hill and Webb's Close have the right to enfranchise (purchase their freeholds).
It looks as though the university, which, as we know, is thick with terribly clever lawyers, is gearing up to argue that it, rather than OUP, is the freeholder of the land on which the two estates were built, but given the mass of evidence to the contrary, it is hard to imagine any impartial court buying this line. No doubt, should the dispute go so far, an Oxonian member of the Haldane Society (the socialist lawyers group) will be stepping forward to defend the workers' rights.
Sincerely, Andrew Malcolm, Brighton