New government rules will force foreign companies based in tax havens to reveal who their owners are in a bid to clamp down on tax avoidance.

Foreign companies, including many registered in Jersey, the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man, invested £220m in Three Rivers, £374m in Watford, £3.3m in Bushey and £32m in Radlett between 2009 and 2014.

The research, compiled by the satirical magazine Private Eye, does not imply any company has avoided paying tax in the UK.

But Christian Aid protesters met at St Mary’s Church, Church Street, Rickmansworth, and accused the British government of failing to stop “UK tax havens from facilitating” tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Adrian Whalley, local Christian Aid representative, said: "We are reminding David Gauke that people around the world are suffering because this government has failed to stop UK tax havens facilitating tax evasion and other serious crimes.

“Fortunately there is a very simple solution. It is to direct the UK tax havens to create public registers of the real owners of the companies they host, just as the UK itself is doing.”

Prime Minister David Cameron last week announced the government will introduce a public register showing when offshore companies are linked to British companies.

David Gauke, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, explained how some companies might have used the system to reduce the amount of tax they pay.

He said: “If there is a profitable property development, there might be two aspects to it. There might be a company that is offshore and there might be one in the UK with both involved in this process.

“And a lot of the work could be claimed to be performed by the off-shore company, as in applying for planning permission and some of the marketing activities could be done from off-shore.

“They could then argue profits should be attributed to the off-shore company because that is the company that has done the work, rather than the on-shore company, which is maybe doing the stuff that is necessary in the UK, so therefore you would find, if 70 per cent of the profits went to the off-shore entity, the off-shore entity wouldn’t be paying any tax on it.”

Among examples visible on the Private Eye map, a company registered in Jersey spent £45,900,000 buying a block of offices opposite the Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden.

BNP Paribas Securities Services Trust Company Limited and BNP Paribas Securities, which are also registered in Jersey, spent £97,080,000 buying properties in Lower High Street currently used as car show rooms. WH (Woodbridge) Limited, also registered in Guernsey, bought £105,476,805 worth of land in Lower High Street.

SIPL Sunrise Propoco S.A R.L, registered in Luxemburg, bought the site for a huge care home in Chorleywood for £38 million in 2014.

A company called MapleCross Hotel Limited, registered in Guernsey, bought land in Maple Cross for £18 million.

Aberlour Limited, registered in the Isle of Man, bought the former headquarters of Comet in Homestead Road, Rickmansworth, for £12,650,000. Some of the one bedroom flats in that new development have been sold for more than £300,000.

Watford Observer:

The map, constructed by Private Eye, shows properties which are owned by companies registered in tax havens.

Mr Gauke says the changes being introduced by the government will improve the transparency of the UK tax system.

He said: “If foreign companies own property in the UK, then they have to say who they are, who the owners are.

“The purpose of that is to improve transparency, to ensure that money that flows from corruption can’t be used to hold UK property concealed from the rest of the world.

“It will be public and it is all part of a fight against corruption.

“Some of the changes we have made are already bringing in a substantial amount of revenue.”