UK’s oldest Indian restaurant under threat in row with Crown Estate

The UK’s oldest Indianrestaurant is facing eviction from its historic central London home of 99 years, in a row with King Charles’s property company.

Veeraswamy has been frequented by a host of royalty and dignitaries from Britain and overseas during its decades spent in Victory House at 99 Regent Street, with notable guests including Princess Anne, Winston Churchill, Indira Ghandi and Charlie Chaplin.

The restaurant even believes it was the only outside caterer ever to have been invited by Queen Elizabeth II to cater a function hosted by the late monarch at Buckingham Palace in 2008, an honour repeated in 2017 during a visit by the Indian president.

The Queen herself then accepted an invitatation to dine at the restaurant with Veeraswamy’s owners, but the plans were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, Ranjit Mathrani, co-owner of its parent company MW Eat told The Independent.

But Mr Mathrani now fears Veeraswamy will be forced to close after the Crown Estate opted not to renew the restaurant’s Regent Street lease, which expires in June – in a dispute over a space roughly the size of the back of a transit van.

After being informed of the decision last year, MW Eat is now taking the Crown Estate to court in a bid to delay their eviction – in the expectation that around two years would ideally be needed to reopen the restaurant at a new location.

Mr Mathrani warned that, if the Crown Estate refuses to allow Veeraswamy to remain at the site until it can find an alternative, it would be forced to close prior to reopening elsewhere, potentially putting the jobs of its 50 staff at risk.

“It would be the end of a very significant living institution,” said Mr Mathrani. “The thing about Veerswamy which is different is: it’s not a mausoleum – a sarcophagus. It’s a living, legendary institution which has been sustained and maintained over the years to be at the top of the game.”

The Crown Estate said it needs to carry out a major refurbishment of the building, with limited options because of its grade II-listed status. The offices on the upper floors of Victory House are reported to have been empty since late 2023 following a flood in the basement, which affected the power supply to parts of the building.

A Crown Estate spokesperson said: “We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible.

“Due to the limited options available in this listed building we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.”

Instead, once the entrance has been removed in order to create a reception area for the offices above, the restaurant will also be converted into new offices as part of the planned renovation, according to The Times.

Mr Mathrani told the newspaper that the Crown Estate had insisted it would not be possible to create a new entrance for the building, and has so far been unable to find suitable place nearby for the restaurant to relocate to once the lease expires.

“I think it’s an outrage. This is cultural philistinism,” Mr Mathrani told The Independent.

“Here is an institution supposedly with some regard for history given its legacy and its social objectives. And it is basically subordinating everything to the homogeneity of having a uniform office building.”

In court documents, Mr Mathrani alleges that “Crown Estate representatives made it clear to me that the historical significance of Veeraswamy is not a material consideration for them, because they are currently driven by an imperative instruction to maximise financial returns to the Treasury”.

He adds: “The general view at the Crown Estates, is that they can only do this by maximising offices and retail, and not our restaurant. However, at no stage have they asked us to match the returns they would receive from the offices or the retail unit.”

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Mathrani said he believed that, “if the Crown were being constructive and were mindful of their social responsibilities”, they could achieve their objectives by keeping Veeraswamy at Regent Street.

“It’ll be a tragedy if we were to end up – as we’re going down the path of – with long expensive court cases of no benefit to either side,” he said, adding: “It is sad and unfortunate that they’ve been unwilling to actually engage … I hope it’s not too late for them to reconsider.”

Established in 1926 – on the same day Queen Elizabeth II was born – by retired Indian army officer Edward Palmer, grandson of the Mughal princess Faisan Nissa Begum, and taken over by MP William Stewart in 1934, Veeraswamy played host to a long list of famous figures over the past 10 decades, including Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier.

The restaurant is also said to have given rise to the tradition of pairing beer and curry, after Prince Axel of Denmark visited Veeraswamy and had a barrel of Carlsberg sent to the restaurant. It has held a Michelin star since 2016, and hosts around 80,000 diners each year, the majority of whom it says are visitors to London.

Noting that it “has a duty to generate value for the nation, while acting as responsible stewards for this historic part of London”, the Crown Estate added: “We appreciate this is upsetting for Veeraswamy and have offered to help find new premises elsewhere on our portfolio having explored other options to accommodate their needs.

“Veeraswamy has been a valued part of Regent Street for many years. We thank them and their customers for their contributions to the West End.”

Aston Villa fall just short in Champions League thriller against PSG

A remarkable, riotous comeback from Aston Villa fell just short as Paris Saint-Germain clung on to progress to the Champions League semi-finals.

The French capital club looked to be cruising into the last four when they struck twice in the opening half-hour, through full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, to double their advantage in the tie after securing a 3-1 win in Paris last week.

But the hosts came roaring back at a raucous Villa Park. Youri Tielemans’s deflected effort before half time gave them hope before the tie appeared to turn in five second-half minutes as John McGinn and Ezri Konsa struck. It left Villa chasing an equaliser to take the encounter to extra time, and they had their chances – but Unai Emery’s side could not find a fourth, with PSG grateful to Gianluigi Donnarumma for a sprinkling of spectacular saves. They face either Arsenal or Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

Re-live all the Champions League action with our live blog below:

What Miquita Oliver’s bankruptcy tells us about women and money

“I knew nothing about tax – absolutely nothing,” Miquita Oliver said on her Miss Me? podcast this week, reflecting on how she went bankrupt aged 27. “I come from parents who know nothing about tax. They didn’t think to ask me whether I was paying tax on the money that I was earning, and I was earning a lot of money. I didn’t ask.”

Now 40, Oliver explained how she was hit with a £170,000 bill after not paying her taxes for three years. As well as declaring bankruptcy, the presenter shared how she was forced to sell off personal possessions to repay her debt – adding that it wasn’t her accountant’s “fault” and that, despite his advice to put money aside each month, she “just stopped doing that” after a while.

Of course, her specific set of circumstances are not entirely relatable (sadly we’re not all “earning lots of money”, especially in our twenties), but her feeling that “this tax and VAT stuff is starting to intimidate me and scare me and I don’t understand it so I’m just going to start not paying it and hiding from it” certainly is. Particularly for women.

In 2024, the insolvency rate for women (26.5 per 10,000) was higher than the rate for men (22.1 per 10,000) – and this has been the case for 11 years running. The only age group where men had a higher insolvency rate was those aged 65 and over.

When it comes to bankruptcy, specifically, although historically more men have declared the financial status, the opposite has been true since 2021, with Covid exacerbating the issue.

Now, it may be tempting to fall into the gender stereotype trap – you know, the whole “girl math” trope, or the idea that women “love to shop”, or that we’re “no good with money”. But it’s not as simple as that.

While many governments have outlined various reforms, taxation laws and policies are still laden with both explicit and implicit gender biases. These systemic imbalances also extend to cultural ones, meaning that, still, women bear the brunt and financial illiteracy is rife.

I know I grappled with personal finance when I was younger. Although I had a part-time job from the age of 12 and felt relatively adept at managing money and budgeting, I had no clue where to begin with student finance when I set off for university. My parents couldn’t help me either – not through lack of desire, but because I was the first generation in my family to go. And although my sixth form was very adamant we all went on to further education, there was little provided in the way of practical help.

Going freelance full-time two years ago also meant expanding my knowledge of tax and self-assessments, and it took a colleague of mine to tell me about things like plugging gaps in my National Insurance contributions and single occupancy council tax discounts for me to fully take control of my finances. I’ve never been in debt (beyond my student loan), but I wouldn’t say I was savvy when it comes to money either.

Then there are the implications of joint taxation, where married couples or civil partners file joint declarations, which can decrease their overall tax burden for the household. In some instances, though, where pay disparity between partners is significant, the secondary earner or lower income earner – which tends to be women, with the current gender pay gap standing at 7 per cent – can be subject to a disproportionately higher marginal tax rate.

This, combined with the fact that women are eight times more likely to be the primary caregiver for children and also more likely to care for elderly family members (whether or not their blood relatives) – as well as the newly-announced welfare cuts, pension reforms, and ridiculously high childcare costs – deters them from entering full-time employment in the first place. Even those who do are more likely than not to be self-employed and face the HMRC nightmare that is self-assessment, because of their caregiver responsibilities. And that’s before we even get into how inheritance tax, capital gains tax, property ownership and consumption skew things, or how single mothers shoulder even more of the burden.

Yes, it could be argued that the knowledge gap extends beyond just women – only 6 per cent of 16-24-year-olds say they learnt about finance at school – and things like socio-economic background also factor in. But there’s still evidence that women and girls are not only disproportionately affected by systems in place, the assumption remains that men and boys should learn about things like taxes, mortgages and investing, because they are the main breadwinners.

This is such a disservice – not just because it limits women and makes them more susceptible to debt, but because it adds yet another obstacle when it comes to entering the workforce and enjoying a successful career. On the surface, it seems as though more women are becoming financially independent and have more agency when it comes to work and motherhood, among other things. But in reality, we’re still met with all kinds of setbacks.

Lego boss and friend of Danish royal family killed in skiing accident

Tributes have been paid to a Lego boss and close friend of the Danish royal family who was killed in a skiing accident in Switzerland.

Michael Halbye, 64, was skiing in the Verbier region on Saturday when he fell off piste and was injured. In a statement the company that owns Lego, Kirkbi, said Mr Halbye was immediately airlifted to hospital but he died from internal bleeding shortly afterwards.

Queen Mary of Denmark issued a statement paying tribute to her friend after his death on 12 April.

“I have received with great sadness the news of Michael Halbye’s sudden death,” she wrote on the Mary Fonden website. “Michael Halbye was a man who possessed a rare positive energy, extensive knowledge and a strong commitment to making a difference for those outside the community. He was also my friend, and he will be missed by many. My thoughts go out to his family and close friends.”

Mr Halbye had been a board member of Queen Mary’s Foundation for more than 17 years, and Bild reported that he had become a close friend of the Queen and her husband, King Frederik.

He had been a vice-chair at Kirkbi since 2022 and joined its board of directors in 2020. Chair Thomas Kirk Kristiansen said in a statement that Mr Halbye had been a “close, trusted partner” for the company’s owning family and for Kirkbi’s management.

“It is with great sadness that we received the news of Michael’s sudden passing. Our thoughts and care go to Michael’s family and loved ones, who are now faced with having to process the unexpected loss of a man who in all facets of life has left a great and positive impression on those around him,” Mr Kristiansen said.

“We will miss Michael as Vice Chairman but first and foremost as a person. May his memory be honored.”

Lego trainer Michel Knecht shared an image of a black Lego piece on LinkedIn, with the writing “R.I.P Michael Halbye”.

“The whole Lego family mourns Michael Halbye,” Mr Knecht wrote.

Mr Halbye’s death while skiing in Switzerland came the day after a British man was killed falling off-piste in the Swiss Alps.

The 54-year-old fell was skiing on the 6,800-foot-high Kleine Scheidegg pass in Grindelwald on Friday morning, and was killed after he veered off course and fell into a stream connected to the Rychenbach Falls.

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Birmingham council ‘on track’ to clear bin backlog by weekend

Birmingham City Council says it is on track to clear a backlog of uncollected waste by the weekend.

Craig Cooper, strategic director of city operations, said that despite the ongoing dispute with the Unite union, clearing the backlog would start tackling those “affected the most” by the bin strike.

In a standoff with the Labour-run council over plans to cut the role of waste recycling collection officer (WRCO), hundreds of bin workers began an all-out strike on 11 March, which has led to rubbish bags piling up on the streets.

Reports have emerged of “cat-sized rats” wreaking havoc on bin bags, which have been labelled the “Squeaky Blinders” by one Tory MP, with concerns growing that the overflowing waste will lead to a health emergency.

Mr Cooper said the amount of uncollected waste had peaked at 22,000 tonnes, but he expected to be back to “one household collection every week” for all residents by the weekend.

“We’re already back to collecting normal household waste this week,” Mr Cooper told the BBC. We are back into a position of good control.

“The priority now is street cleansing and making sure the fly-tipping is at a manageable level.”

There are currently 120 bin lorries completing the rounds every day, which is half of its total capacity, while garden waste and recycling will not be collected until the strike is over.

His comments come a day after Unite members voted by 97 per cent against the council’s offer of pay protection for a number of workers on 60 per cent turnout, with Unite saying the offer did not address potential pay cuts for 200 drivers and was “totally inadequate”.

Speaking outside the council offices on Tuesday, striking WRCO Wendy, who did not want to give her surname but has been in the role for five years, fears she could lose her house if her wages decrease.

She said she is not asking for more money but wants to keep her wages at the current level rather than see them cut.

She said: “I’m a single parent and I brought up three children. I also rent my property from Birmingham City Council, so if I lose £600, potentially I could lose my home.

“So the impact on it, everything’s going up, but our wages are just stopped there. They are raising everything, especially the council rents, but they want to lower your wages.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Cooper said that the role of WRCO was “not fit for purpose” and urged striking workers to think again about the offer the local authority has put forward, which he says has included alternative job roles.

Speaking at the council’s offices in Victoria Square on Tuesday, Mr Cooper said: “My message to Unite is that we have put a very, very fair offer on the table.

“We know that there are 170 WRCOs, we know that 130 of them have already accepted alternatives, whether that’s progression to be drivers and training for that, whether that’s voluntary redundancy, or whether that’s moving to a role of an equal grade and another part of city operations.

“There are about 40 that haven’t, and I urge those 40 to look again at whether or not they want progression, to look again at whether or not they want to stay on the same pay grade and remain within city operations, because that’s a key part of the offer.

“Nobody needs to drop down, but the WRCO role is not a role that exists anymore. It’s not fit for purpose.”