£3m Phil ‘yer boots’ Hammond
Chancellor could make fortune on £100k of land if permission for homes is granted
CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond could make millions if planning permission is granted for new homes on green belt land he owns.
He bought three acres next to his family home in Surrey from housebuilder Martin Grant for £100,000.
He tied an “option” agreement to the 2008 sale that allows Grant to buy back the land with any uplift in its value being split equally.
Experts estimate that it could be worth £2million an acre if the land gets planning permission, bringing him a profit of about £3million.
There are no plans to re-zone Hammond’s plot for housing but Martin Grant Homes intend to build 1700 houses on former greenbelt land nearby that already has permission.
Hammond said: “The extra land was purchased to extend our curtilage and afford additional privacy.
“It is part of our principle residence registered with
if there’s a potential of making substantial profit, it should be declared ALISTAIR GRAHAM
the Cabinet Office.
“I have discussed the matter with the director of compliance and ethics at the Cabinet Office and I am confident there is no conflict of interest and no failure to comply with registration requirements.”
The revelation comes from a probe by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme into why not enough good-quality affordable homes are being built.
Despite promises to safeguard Britain’s greenbelt, 425,000 houses are planned for such land – an increase of more than 50 per cent since 2016 and the biggest rise for two decades.
However, since 2009, only one in six homes built on such land is affordable.
Alistair Graham, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, believes such arrangements should be made public.
He said: “We don’t know the motivation of Mr Hammond or the developer in this agreement but if there’s a potential of making substantial profit, in my view it should be declared.
“If it were to become zoned for housing, he could make a substantial profit.” ●Dispatches: Secrets of Britain’s New Homes is on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm.