Britain’s third-richest man is fighting a fresh planning battle for permission to transform a derelict “tin cottage” into a three-bedroom home for a “permanent guardian” to protect and maintain his £6m dream beach house on the Solent coast in the New Forest national park.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who made his £18bn fortune from the petrochemicals and fracking company Ineos, lodged the application for the caretaker’s cottage after he eventually emerged victorious from a six-year dispute with planning authorities and conservationists for permission to build his controversial Thorns Beach House costal home next door.
Ratcliffe’s plans for the garden cottage, which is currently owned by Ralph Douglas-Scott-Montagu, the 4th Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, show he wishes to demolish the existing 58 sq metres two-bedroom tumbledown structure and replace it with a 99.6 sq metres three-bedroom property.
Ratcliffe looks set for another marathon battle to win planning approval for the development in one of the most beautiful parts of the New Forest national park. The Environment Agency, which was also against Ratcliffe’s plans for his main house, has formally objected to the cottage plans because of “unacceptable risk to life and property from flooding”.
The Environment Agency said: “The application does not demonstrate that occupants can remain safe for the development’s lifetime when allowances for climate change are taken into consideration.”
A flood risk assessment included in the planning application claims that the property would be able to withstand tidal flooding. The report states gaps in walls surrounding the property will be plugged with boards by the occupants in the event of a flood warning. “Tidal and sea flooding events can be predicted a long time in advance,” it states. “There will be ample time to evacuate the site.”
One of Ratcliffe’s neighbours has also written to New Forest National Park Authority to raise concerns about flooding. “Having lived here for many years, I can confirm the southern section of Orchard Cottage garden east of the Garden Cottage’s east wall is routinely flooded over the winter months,” she said. “In addition, further flooding routes are seen annually.”
Ratcliffe’s Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Stirlingshire, was last month found by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) to be responsible for almost a third of industrial greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. Ineos companies produced 3.6m tonnes of CO2 in 2017 (the latest year available) out of a total of 11m tonnes of emissions produced by all companies in Scotland with a mandatory duty to report them.
Ratcliffe’s plans for the guardian’s cottage also include a two-car garage and “cart store” for a further three cars, and an additional “four-bay machine store”.
There will also be a dovecote and a loggia, a reclaimed brick and wood structure designed to evoke the feeling of a Renaissance Italian palazzo. “Two additional small outbuildings give space for guardian to work and persue [sic] interests, the Loggia & Dovecote, flanking the sides of the main dwelling,” the application states.
Ratcliffe submitted the plans for the cottage to “provide a family residence for a permanent guardian who will be responsible for tending to the site and neighbouring Thorns Beach House” shortly after it was revealed that he plans to move to Monaco to save up to £4bn-a-year in tax. In order to avoid paying UK taxes Ratcliffe will be limited to a maximum of 182 days a year in the UK and will not be able to visit his portfolio of British properties regularly.
A team of six security guards are currently employed to guard the site of his main home in the picturesque village of Thorns Beach near Beaulieu.
Ratcliffe has already annoyed his neigbours – who include the Dire Straits musicians Mark Knopfler and John Illsley – by requesting that they help fund his high-speed broadband connection. One neighbour told the Sun: “He’s a bloody billionaire. If he wants it, why doesn’t he just pay for it?”
Ratcliffe, who also owns a £77m superyacht called Hampshire II, did not respond to requests for comment on the project. The Hampshire II, which has a crew of 21 and cabins for 14 guests, is currently in Monaco.
