New Bethel complex for UK

by JEMIMAH 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Number 6

  Looking at the HM Land Registry Website, the average sales for properties in London NW7 vary between £175,386 for a basic flat to £371,066 for a detached house. For those who have visited the sleepy North London Suburb of Mill Hill will remeber the quiet residential area the Bethel Complex lies in. So you can imagine what end of the scale properties lie in for that area. This is prime commuter territory at the end of the Northerrn Line with about a 30 minute ride into Central London, also immediately adjacent to the M1 at London Gateway (Scratchwood Services) at Juntion 2, and 10 mins walk from Mill Hill Broadway mainline station on the Midland Mainline. So this area is a property developers dream. If the current UK property market is anything to go by the Watchtower will make a FORTUNE on this site, £100's of millions at the very least.

  Compare this to property prices in Milton Keynes (Bletchley) area postcode MK5. The MAXIMUM price here last quarter for a property sale was £168,985; with the MAXIMUM property price near Toyota Derby DE73 (closest postcode I could get for house sales, correction anyone?) is £116,704.

  So after setting up shop in the Midlands the Watchtower still stand to show a very handsome profit. The transport, centralisation and other factors strike me as very incidental.

  Of course the real reason is for distributing the much needed spiritual food to the bretheren. NOT.

  6

  I am not a dub I am a free man.
• 

  ozziepost

  Here is what the Watchtower's own web site states on the matter of finances:

  Primarily by voluntary donations from Jehovah's Witnesses. No collections are taken at our meetings, and members are not required to tithe. Clearly marked contribution boxes are provided in all meeting places for voluntary donations, which remain anonymous. Expenses are manageable, as there are no paid clergy and the meeting places are modest. Donations forwarded to the nearest branch office of Jehovah's Witnesses are used for disaster relief, support for missionaries and traveling ministers, construction of houses of worship, and the printing and shipping of Bibles and Christian publications. It is a personal decision to donate, whether toward local expenses, worldwide expenses, or both. Financial reports are regularly given for the information of the entire congregation.

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "You can know the law by heart, without knowing the heart of it"
  Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?
• 

  JEMIMAH

  I seem to remember someone posting about the IBSA charity return
  Can anyone else remember?

  Jem
• 

  JEMIMAH

  I have come across the value of land owned by the charity IBSA
  in London. £37,798,067.90 in their annual return 31st August 2000
  However according to their own accounts this valuation is from 1992 as in their own words.

  "Following the inception of FRS 15, the trustees have decided not to revalue freehold on the grounds of cost"

  The costs of this land must have doubled or even trebled in the last 9 years or so.

  And this figure doesn't include freehold and property owned by the other british charity Watchtower, Bible and Tract Society of Britain

  seems like moving will prove to be a real money spinner to me.

  Jem
• 

  MacHislopp

  Hello JemiMah,

  thanks again for this post. As I have stated
  many times in this forum, this kind of topic should be given
  the widest publicity.
  Btw , sometime ago I did post about the IBSA, in London,
  totatl assets about 40 million BP. Not too bad, they should
  inform the brothers in Angola, Burkina Faso, Malawi,
  Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia etc. etc.

  Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp