The Financial Services Authority has arrested five people over allegations relating to land banking investments sold through a unauthorised collective investment scheme.

Land banking involves the purchase of land with a view to selling it on at a later date for profit, often as a result of planning permission being obtained.

The FSA does not regulate the sale of land but land banking amounts to collective investment, something that requires FSA authorisation.

The regulator, with support from City of London Police, executed search warrants on nine premises in Kent and Greater London, with five people being arrested as a result.

(Via FT Adviser. To read the full story, click here)

Another landbanking firm that promised ­investors huge returns if they bought greenfield plots has been shut down.

Regency Land Sales boasted "capital growth with minimum exposure" and "buying farmland is as good as gold".

It wasn't, because the plots were never likely to get the promised planning permission for housing that would make their value rocket.

(Via The Mirror. To read the full story, click here)