Retail chief in bid to boost UK farming

A FIRM set up by the billionaire founder of a discount retail empire has bought nearly 5,000 acres of land from the Church of England to help farmers “grow and promote British produce”.

Home Bargains chief Tom Morris, 67, is the director of The Halsall Estate Limited, which was incorporated in January and has bought 4,960 acres at Halsall,

West Lancashire, in a deal which could be worth up to £50m.

The land was sold by the Church Commissioners, which administers the property assets of the Church of England and manages around 95,000 acres of land and an

£8.7bn investment fund.

It is not clear how many farmers currently operate on the Halsall Estate, but all agricultural producers and others renting on it “have been assured that the terms of their existing tenancies will be honoured”, a spokesman said.

Mr Morris, who shuns the limelight, is one of seven siblings born to a Liverpool shopkeeper and founded Home Bargains in the city in 1976. His brother, Joseph, is its operations director.

The cut-price high street chain, which employs more than 25,000 people across 525 stores in the

UK, sells everything from designer perfumes to dress-up costumes and dog kennels, paddling pools and power tools to its four million customers per week.

The Morris family has a £4.1bn fortune, according to The Sunday Times Rich List – more than the combined wealth of retail tycoons Mike Ashley and Sir Philip Green.