Calatrava received £13 million for unbuilt Valencia project

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was paid £13 million for a building project in Valencia that will never be built.

Calatrava was commissioned to design a project including three skyscrapers and eight residential blocks, but the scheme was cancelled after the Spanish property market collapsed, according to reports in the Daily Telegraph.

The architect was paid a £13 million fee in four instalments by the Valencian regional government, whose former president, Francisco Camps, is due to go on trial on corruption charges.

Opposition MPs called for an investigation into the payments. The case was shelved by the public prosecutor this week, but court papers revealed the amount paid to Calatrava.

Earlier statements about the project had indicated that only £2.2 million had been spent on the project. But the public prosecutor declared there was no “offence of wasting public money”.