THE future of Thurrock Council's relationship with showcase property partner Phi Capital remains unknown today after a High Court hearing.

As exclusively reported by Thurrock Nub News on Friday (17 January) HMRC filed a petition with the High Court in London to wind up Phi Capital Investments over a debt believed to be more than £300,000. 

Phi has been engaged by the council to source properties that are then bought and refurbished by its own team of housing contractors. 

When the properties are sourced, Phi supplies Thurrock Council with a purchase cost, fees for handling conveyancing, cost of refurbishment and managing the refurbishment that need to be carried out to bring the property up to the council's standards.

Evidence held by Thurrock Nub News shows significant areas of concern about how that process has been conducted.

Nub News offered to share that evidence with the council at a face-to-face meeting. The council declined the offer.

And requests for information and briefing on the situation by some councillors have been rebuffed by the council's senior leadership team. 

Today (Wednesday, 22 January) at the City Court House, Rolls Building, London, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Paul Greenwood received HMRC's petition.

He heard from legal representatives of Phi Capital that an application has now been made by the company to go into administration. That application will be heard on Thursday, 30 January. 

Judge Greenwood adjourned a decision on the petition until Wednesday, 19 February.

As reported in the Nub News story last week, directors of Phi have already created new companies that effectively replicate the services currently offered.

Thurrock News' investigations into procedural errors by Thurrock Council are responsible for a sum of substantially more than £200,000 which could possibly be recoverable but that seems unlikely given the council's lack of knowledge and due diligence about its transactions and business with Phi Capital Investments. 

It is not known what will happen to a deal in which the council was due to receive £1.8 million of Government funding in March to help buy ten homes for Afghan refugees and local homeless families.

Phi Capital played an integral part in the council's scheme and may have been paid up to £231,000 to facilitate it. A bid to call in and reconsider the council's handling of the scheme was rejected.

Councillors were assured by senior officers in December that Phi were a trusted, reliable and financially sound partner and the deal was a good one for Thurrock.

Since news of Phi's demise broke, Thurrock Council has declined to respond to councillor and media requests for an update on the scheme.