Even from a young age, Asif Aziz possessed something of a theatrical swagger. Not that he acquired his nickname, Mr West End, through thespian accomplishments or because he fancied himself a theatre impresario.

Rather, it was due to his knack of gobbling up huge chunks of London’s shopping and entertainment district, including the Trocadero leisure complex at Piccadilly Circus.

Today he is among the most successful property developers in the country – and arguably the most rapacious.

Every year his charitable foundation pays for a Ramadan lights display along Oxford Street, when Mr Aziz can be found hobnobbing with the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, and greeting all he meets with charm and courtesy.

Many contend that the 59-year-old billionaire’s bonhomous exterior masks a rare ruthlessness. Indeed, these days he is known by a thoroughly less appealing title – Britain’s meanest landlord. It was bestowed on him after he took commercial tenants to court over unpaid rent during the pandemic, though in truth it is but one item on a long charge sheet. Controversy clings to Mr Aziz like a shadow.

Only this summer he was linked to yet another row when three children living in one of his South London tower blocks were hospitalised during a heatwave after their parents were told use of existing air conditioning in the building was not allowed.

And earlier this year Mr Aziz faced allegations that Criterion Capital, the firm he founded, was cynically staging ‘mass evictions’ at the same block ahead of the new statutory rules protecting renters against unjustified dispossessions. Even his pal, the London mayor, declared himself ‘appalled’ by the reports. The company denied the claims.

In addition to flats, Mr Aziz’s ever-expanding £9billion property portfolio in Britain and Europe includes hospitality venues, hotels and shops.

Now questions are being raised about the seeming unchecked power he wields and the threat it poses to, among other things, cultural and community spaces. For instance, Mr Aziz has also been accused of trying to ‘bully’ a much-loved London cinema out of business; buying and closing at least 30 traditional British pubs to make way for his beloved luxury apartments; and replacing London’s Central YMCA, a historic community gym and health club, with a swanky hotel.

He has also faced claims that he turns a blind eye to a despicable form of tax evasion that allows tawdry ‘gift shops’ to spread like an ugly rash along Britain’s leading shopping streets.

Yet were it not for the controversies, he might well be celebrated as a modern British success story.

He was born in Malawi in 1967, where the Aziz family operated a successful clothing import company. When he was seven, they moved to London, and he attended a private school in Cheshire. Mr Aziz first began dabbling in property at the tender age of 16. Assuring an auctioneer he was two years older, he successfully bid for a £1.9million building in South Kensington for his family’s firm. ‘He was this tiny, fresh-faced guy at the back of the room,’ recalled the bemused auctioneer.

Over time, as well as making lots of money, he gave to numerous charitable causes. The Aziz Foundation also makes thousands of pounds worth of donations to MPs. He sees himself as ‘a shining symbol of London’s rich diversity – a reflection of the warmth and coexistence that make this city so extraordinary’.

Not everyone would agree. Take the residents of that tower block, for instance, Britannia Point, once dubbed Britain’s ugliest building, which stands 18 storeys high in Colliers Wood in the south west of the capital. The air conditioning row followed years of complaints over maintenance issues – including broken lifts, no hot water and a window pane that fell to the ground from the 12th floor in 2022. Footage of the incident attracted national media coverage and prompted widespread condemnation. It turned out 69 windows across the tower needed replacing.

Over the years local MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh and councillor Stuart Neaverson have fought numerous battles on behalf of Britannia’s unlucky residents.

In May, 60 homeless families, who had been offered emergency accommodation in the building, allegedly had their cooling units switched off without warning. With so much glass, the ‘greenhouse effect’ inside the block reached apparently dangerous levels.

One mother, Sabrina Walters, 31, said: ‘My youngest is one, and she was dripping with sweat. I picked her up from her chair after she had fallen asleep, and she was literally soaked. My 12-year-old was having constant nosebleeds – she had between ten and 20 within two or three days.’

Dame Siobhain raised concerns with the property management firm, Aura Assets Management, after being told by another mother in the block that she had to rush her four-year-old son to A&E after losing use of her air conditioning unit. Excessive heat caused him ‘frequent nosebleeds [and] episodes of fainting’.

It might surprise some readers that the families had air con in the first place, but, as Dame Siobhain pointed out, the units were originally installed only after previous safety concerns had been raised in the building, which once became so dangerously hot that its lifts automatically shut down, as they do in the event of a fire.

In her letter to Aura Dame Siobhain wrote: ‘I have now been made aware of multiple cases in which families ... have been subjected to dangerously hot conditions in their homes after losing use of air conditioning.’ A message from the building reception confirmed that Ms Walters’ air conditioning had been ‘switched off’ as the units had ‘not been offered as an amenity’ under the arrangements of their accommodation.

In a statement, Aura Assets Management said: ‘In light of the prolonged high temperatures, we have encouraged residents to use the systems sensibly and in accordance with their individual needs, while also being mindful of potential electricity costs.

‘This advice was intended solely to help residents make informed decisions about their energy consumption and should not be interpreted as discouraging the use of air conditioning for their comfort and wellbeing.’

Sources claimed the air conditioning was initially turned back on only in the flats of the two parents who complained to the MP, and that residents had been quoted prices to use the units ranging from £70 for a month to £500 for the summer. Councillor Neaverson told the Daily Mail: ‘For years, Colliers Wood has been on the frontlines of learning what it’s like to be near an Asif Aziz-owned property. Since his company bought Britannia Point, the problems have been non-stop and tragic. From the air conditioning being deliberately turned off for vulnerable families, leading to the hospitalisation of three children, to attempting to carry out the biggest mass eviction in London’s history, his company, Criterion Capital, has made life hell for hundreds of families. And that’s just the past six months.

‘Sadly, Asif Aziz and Criterion’s disgraceful behaviour is not just limited to Colliers Wood, but to buildings across the capital.’

Criterion Capital said decisions taken about air conditioning had been made by the leaseholders, Aura and People First Housing.

Moving on to the Trocadero, when Mr Aziz bought the building for £220million in 2005, it was a thriving entertainment space boasting 68illion visitors a year. Two decades on, the stucco-fronted landmark is now a 728-room ‘windowless’ hotel which had planning permission for a controversial two-storey mosque in the basement, since revised to a prayer room and community centre.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Mr Aziz is publicity-shy. He spends much of his time in Abu Dhabi, which in 2024 he made his tax residency and from where he continues to squeeze his British tenants for ‘every last penny’, as a former colleague put it.

The ‘mass evictions’ scandal at Britannia Point was a striking illustration. One tenant caught up in it, Becky Vogt, works on a mental health ward at nearby St George’s Hospital. She told us she received an email from Criterion Capital announcing its intention to take possession of the building, turfing out hundreds of occupants. ‘It has left me feeling anxious and worried,’ Ms Vogt said.

Other tenants told us they received Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction notices from Criterion.

A shared interest in Ramadan lights notwithstanding, Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was ‘completely unacceptable for Criterion Capital to evict hundreds of people out of their homes due to no fault of their own’.

Dame Siobhain told the Daily Mail she feared Criterion Capital was planning to empty the tower – along with further residential properties across London – in order, cynically, to make ‘more money with less responsibility’ by renting to local councils looking for temporary accommodation for the homeless.

Thankfully, following a fierce backlash, Criterion Capital backed down, bizarrely claiming it never intended to implement mass evictions at all.

Yet the apparent retreat did little to assuage tenants’ concerns. ‘Rent has gone up by hundreds of pounds in the past few years and they still haven’t fixed the lift,’ said a 42-year-old father of two. ‘It’s a joke. We’ve been told there’s been a U-turn on the evictions but I’m yet to have a visit or hear back directly from Criterion.’

For all his youthful efforts at the auction house, Mr Aziz’s early property forays weren’t a success. In fact he left Britain for Angola in the 1990s. There he won lucrative contracts with Nestle, Kraft and Unilever to distribute products in a country then ravaged by civil war.

He sold the company a decade later in a multi-million-pound deal. However, the Lebanese buyers would later sue Mr Aziz, accusing him of inflating the value and using company expenses to buy tailored suits and even book a luxury cruise. Mr Aziz denied the claims, despite the emergence of an email in which he asked his chief accountant: ‘Can we not bull**** the numbers another way?’

It was from the proceeds of this sale that he snapped up the Trocadero, later drawing criticism for his plans to turn the heritage space into a mosque – despite planning to build a casino on the same site. It was the row, though, over Mr Aziz’s scheme for the much-loved Prince Charles Cinema, a four-minute walk from the Trocadero, that brought the biggest backlash. The property occupied by the cinema is owned by another of Mr Aziz’s companies, Zedwell LSQ Ltd.

A year ago, the cinema – described by Trainspotting director Danny Boyle as the ‘ninth wonder of the world’ – started a petition to save itself, claiming Zedwell and its parent company Criterion Capital were using their ‘significant financial resources to intimidate us’.

A new lease put to the Prince Charles included a rent rise, a shorter agreement and – crucially – a six-month break clause, which the cinema believed Zedwell intended to activate should it get planning permission to develop a hotel on the site.

The petition garnered 100,000 signatures within 24 hours and attracted the support of Hollywood stars including actor Paul Mescal. For now, the cinema appears to be safe.

Then there are the tenants Mr Aziz does not try to evict. Last year, MP for Kensington and Bayswater Joe Powell stood in the Commons and suggested that some gaudy so-called ‘gift stores’ in central London were operating a tax evasion scheme known as ‘phoenixing’, in which the legal owner of the downmarket shops ‘vanishes’ without paying tax, so allowing a new owner to take over, before soon disappearing in turn.

As a result, the store is allowed to rake in profits without paying any tax whatsoever.

Subsequent research by investigative start-up news site London Centric found that the tacky gift shops – which typically sell everything from sweets and fridge magnets to Royal Family face masks – were nominally leased by students in Bangladesh and India.

The registered business addresses were found to be overcrowded flat shares or, in one case, a car park doubling as a fly-tip.

Of all the stores investigated by London Centric, every single one had been rented from companies owned by Asif Aziz.

Landlords such as Mr Aziz have no legal obligation to monitor the tax affairs of their tenants, but the practice certainly raises questions about his moral outlook.

Mr Aziz has historically hit back against all allegations, accusing his naysayers of ‘Islamophobia’ and describing himself as ‘an easy target’. But playing the victim is unlikely to wash. ‘London is full of unique spaces, and I saw opportunities to reimagine and shape them,’ he once said of his career.

The question for Londoners is whether they share the vision he seems to have in mind. And if the reaction to Britannia Point and other scandals is anything to go by, they have already delivered their resounding answer.