A landlord who said he didn't want "coloured" people living in his properties because of "the curry smell" says he is not racist.
An investigation has been launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over Fergus Wilson's remarks, which were made in an email to Evolution estate agents and leaked to The Sun.
The 70-year-old property developer, said to be Britain's biggest buy-to-let investor, wrote: "No coloured people because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy."
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When the newspaper approached Wilson for comment, he said: "To be honest, we're getting overloaded with coloured people. It is a problem with certain types of coloured people – those who consume curry – it sticks to the carpet.
"You have to get some chemical thing that takes the smell out. In extreme cases you have to replace the carpet."
Asked if he had told the agent not to take "coloured" people as tenants, Wilson said: "Certainly at one point we have."
Evolution's Roy Fever said: "We don't condone this at all. We would never implement a policy like that. We put through anyone to the landlord and it is up to the landlord who they take on."
Wilson later told Kent Online: "I am not racist and my beef is with curry, not with the colour of someone's skin.
"I have merely taken an economic decision. It is the same with dog owners and smokers."
In January, it was reported that Wilson had told agents not to rent his properties to single mothers, victims of domestic violence, plumbers or low income earners.
His discrimination is the tip of the iceberg, says Julia Rampen in the New Statesman, recalling a BBC investigation in 2013 that found ten letting agencies willing to discriminate racially.
One manager filmed by the broadcaster said: "Ninety-nine per cent of my landlords don't want Afro-Caribbeans."
Discrimination is also "common" in flatshares, claims Rampen, with live-in landlords or other housemates allowed to "express preferences for gender and ethnicity".
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