The US embassy in London has responded to US President Donald Trump after he described the new £750 million embassy in Battersea, which opens January 16, as a “bad deal.” On Friday, Trump cancelled a February trip to the UK to open the new embassy. He blamed the cancelled visit on the “off location” of the new embassy, which is moving from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to Nine Elms, south of the Thames. He said the embassy was sold for “peanuts” in a poor deal negotiated by his predecessor Obama’s administration. On Friday evening, a US embassy spokesman hit back at the president’s claims. He said the plan to finance the project was developed in 2007, at a time when George W. Bush was in the White House. “In 2007, the department developed a plan to finance a new embassy project through a property swap for existing US government property in London. “This solution allowed construction of a new chancery that meets all security standards, yet used no taxpayer dollars to fund the project.” The spokesman said the budget was approximately one billion dollars (£730 million) and includes the site purchase, design, and construction costs. He added: “The project has been executed within the established budget. The search for a new embassy site in London considered more than 50 sites. “A multi-disciplinary team of professionals considered over 170 criteria, to include physical security requirements, and determined that the Nine Elms site was the best overall location for the US government. “The new embassy in Nine Elms is one of the most secure, hi-tech, and environmentally-friendly embassies the United States has ever built.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-embassy-in-london-responds-to-donald-trump-on-bad-deal-2018-1
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