Cash blow for developer in contract battle

Mr Justice Vos found Mr Candy's Qatari partners in the project breached the terms of their agreement by withdrawing planning permission after the intervention of the Prince of Wales.

But the judge said Mr Candy's company, CPC Group, was not entitled to the early payment of 68.5m under the terms of the contract.

He said he would consider the issue at a later hearing if CPC sought damages for the breach of the contract.

Mr Justice Vos said both CPC and Qatari Diar Real Estate, the partners in the development, "were faced with a very difficult position once the Prince of Wales intervened in the planning process". "His intervention was, no doubt, unexpected and unwelcome."

The judge was told at a hearing last month that the Qatari company had withdrawn the planning application for the

modernist development after Charles wrote to the chairman of Qatari Diar, who is also the prime minister of Qatar, saying that his "heart sank" when he saw the design by architect Lord Rogers.

Lord Grabiner QC, representing CPC Group, said: "He urged Sheik Hamad bin Jasim to reconsider the plan before it was too late and attached a scheme by a different, classical architect he preferred.

"Prince Charles and Lord Rogers had form in the way that they had previously crossed swords and Prince Charles's opposition to modern architecture is notorious."

Sheik Hamad is the cousin of the Emir of Qatar, who had been invited by Charles to a meeting in London when the Emir was said to have been "surprised" by Lord Rogers's designs for the barracks site and would have them changed, said Lord Grabiner.