Wayne Gold

Wayne Gold is a Watford-based property developer and Managing Director of GolDev Ltd, a company concerned with 'large scale development of mixed uses' including relocating football clubs to unlock land for housing. He also previously operated under WG Developments.

Gold has a track record of ambitious large-scale proposals that did not materialise. In 2006, he received permission to build 150 homes near Claygate station in Elmbridge, but the project collapsed when residents refused to sell and was replaced by a modest 19-flat scheme. In 2008, plans to relocate Braintree Town FC and build 1,000-1,500 homes through WG Developments were eventually abandoned, with the stadium element dropped entirely by 2016. His completed projects are comparatively small: office-to-flat conversions in Brantham and Acton, and 186 student rooms in Luton.

In 2016, Gold's company entered an agreement with Woking Borough Council and Woking Football Club to redevelop the Laithwaite Community Stadium and build approximately 1,000 homes. In May 2018, a subsidiary — GolDev Woking Limited — was set up to isolate financial risk, with Gold as director alongside Richard and Spencer Leslie of Dukelease Properties.

Woking Borough Council offered GolDev Woking a £250 million revolving loan to fund the project. The company had just £100 in share capital and no independent assets. The council conducted no credit reference checks and required no guarantor. An independent task group review later described the due diligence as 'wholly inadequate', with conflicts of interest, a lack of documentation, inaccurate information and serious concerns surrounding the loan.

No minutes were kept at more than 50 meetings between council officers and GolDev, meaning there is no formal record of what was discussed or agreed during the negotiation of a quarter-billion-pound public loan.

The planning application for 1,048 flats and a new 10,000-seat stadium generated 1,840 public objections and was refused by Woking's Planning Committee in June 2020. GolDev appealed, with Gold telling the inquiry he had spent over £3 million on plans based on the council's 'commitment to making this transaction succeed.' The Secretary of State dismissed the appeal in December 2021, with the planning inspector concluding that only around 93 homes would be appropriate for the site — a fraction of the 1,000+ proposed.

The entire GolDev corporate structure consisted of shell companies with negligible assets. GolDev Woking Limited (the loan recipient) was owned by GolDev Holdings Limited (whose only asset was the £100 share in GolDev Woking), which was in turn owned by GolDev Limited (the ultimate parent, also with minimal assets). Wayne Gold was director and person of significant control throughout this chain.

GolDev Woking Limited was dissolved on 12 November 2024. GolDev Holdings Limited was dissolved in April 2024. The parent company, GolDev Limited, remains active. As of the latest Companies House data, Wayne Gold holds 12 active company appointments.

No criminal, regulatory, or disciplinary proceedings against Wayne Gold are publicly known. Despite the £250m loan facility being offered to a company he controlled with virtually no assets, no formal accountability process has been initiated against him personally.