£85k safety net widened
THE £85,000 savings safety net has been extended to cover more financial products – giving people higher levels of protection.
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme pays customers when firms are unable to, such as when they go bust.
The new limit, up from £50,000, covers investment providers, mortgage and pensions advisers and long-term care insurance.
FSCS chief executive Mark Neale said the move “further strengthens financial confidence”.
Asked what his wealthy friends think of him not doing so, he says: “They think I’m a mug. I’ve had arguments about it.” He goes on: “I’ve had to work like hell to get where I am, but Britain has been good to me, the people of Britain have been good to me. Why should I feel I can rob them of all that money?”
We spoke with the tycoon in the opulent surroundings of a Mayfair townhouse. For all its grandeur, his tatty pair of moccasin slippers sit at the bottom of the stairs near a bike he uses to cycle every day and to go to meetings.
Yet the tycoon is camping out here while his even bigger home, which once belonged to a playboy member of the Brunei royal family, is being refurbished a stone’s throw away.
The cost of the colossal overhaul was estimated a few years ago at £250million.
The finished home, measuring 44,000 square metres, includes a Thai-themed dining room, in honour of Mr Caudwell’s favourite cuisine, complete with a fishfilled flowing river.
A vast basement will include a new swimming pool and car lift to where up to six vehicles are stored.
The extravagant home is a long way from Mr Caudwell’s humble roots, growing up in Stoke-on-Trent.
His mum worked in the post room of Royal Doulton and his dad, who suffered
a stroke when John was 14 and died four years later, worked for an engineering company.
He still sees his mother regularly, sometimes twice week, often taking one of his home-cooked shepherd’s pies.
Mr Caudwell once worked in a tyre factory and sold used cars but jumped on the mobile phone revolution in the 1980s, trading as Midland Mobile Phones – later renamed Phones4u.
It grew to a chain of nearly 600 shops and was selling 26 phones a minute by the time he sold the business for £1.5billion in 2006.
But while he netted a fortune, more than 3,500 workers would later lose their jobs after Phones4u collapsed in 2014 when mobile networks ditched the chain.
Mr Caudwell was married to wife Kate for 25 years, but they divorced in 2001.
He then had a long-term relationship with former model Claire Johnson.
Much of his time is now spent on charitable work through Caudwell Children, which helps disabled youngsters.
He also pumped £10million into the Caudwell International Children’s Centre in Staffordshire, a purpose-built facility dedicated to autism support.
The tycoon is encouraging others with plenty of money to leave a big chunk of their wealth to charity. “Wealthy people ought to think very seriously about giving most of it away,” he says. “Just leave a few hundred million to the kids.”
One of Mr Caudwell’s Monaco friends is shamed tycoon Philip Green. He is coy about discussing the Topshop baron, but says: “It’s up to him to run his life the way he wishes, but it’s not my way.”
He is also critical of big firms which use clever accounting to slash their corporation tax bills. “I find it disgusting,” he says, adding authorities should consider criminalising the practice.
The other big issue Mr Caudwell feels passionately about is Brexit, having been