Bishop’s best line yet . . . he pockets £4.5m from HS2!
Comic sells mansion to make way for trains
HE has been one of HS2’s sharpest-tongued critics.
But comedian John Bishop is now significantly richer after selling his family house to make way for the controversial high-speed line.
The Liverpool-born star has offloaded his Grade II-listed country mansion Whatcroft Hall for £6.8 million – more than three times what he paid for it six years ago.
The purchase is the biggest made so far from homeowners living along the route.
Bishop, 52, said yesterday he was ‘unhappy’ at being forced to move out of his family home, but HS2 had made it ‘unsellable’. He also accused HS2 of ‘destroying all he and his family had worked for.’ But havfacting previously described HS2 as ‘ the Great Train Robbery’, the huge profit should at least provide some consolation.
The father of three paid £2.25 million for the ten-bedroom Georgian mansion in Cheshire in 2013 – meaning he has made a healthy £4.5 million from the sale.
Situated in Northwich, Cheshire, the property is surrounded by 24 acres of landscaped lawn with a tennis court and a lake. Land Registry records confirm that the new owner is, technically, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, who oversees the HS2 project.
A source close to Bishop last night said he had not benefited from the deal because the property had been valued at significantly more than £6.8 million when it was first put on the market in late 2016.
It is also understood that Bishop spent ‘ significant’ amounts of money restoring Whatcroft Hall and its gardens to their former glories.
But the price paid by the Department for Transport for the house – revealed by The Sun on Sunday – has fuelled
‘He had no choice but to sell’
concerns over the spiralling cost of the project. More detailed figures seen by the Daily Mail following a Freedom of Information request show HS2 has already paid £371 million compensation to property owners along the route.
This includes £ 315 million under the ‘need to sell’ and ‘exceptional hardship’ schemes set up for those living near the line – which is set to run from London to Birmingham and then branch out to Leeds and Manchester. Joe Rukin, of campaign group Stop HS2 said: ‘The that HS2 is paying almost £7 million for one house along the route shows just how far over budget it is going to end up.’
In 2014, Bishop voiced a Thomas the Tank Engine-style cartoon video lambasting the £56 billion project. Calling it ‘the Great Train Robbery’, the clip included Bishop as the voice of a train called HS2 crashing through a country home.
It said: ‘I’m hiding... from the facts. After spending tens of billions of pounds, I will only save 20 minutes. I will devastate communities – and destroy unique wildlife habitats.’
It is understood Bishop and his wife Melanie put their home on the market in late 2016, before a new HS2 route placed the line just 160 yards away.
A representative for Bishop said: ‘John Bishop maintains his opposition to HS2.
‘He is unhappy, like many others affected by the proximity of the proposed line, that he was left with no choice but to sell his family home to HS2, as the proposed line had rendered it unsellable on the open market – thus destroying all he and his family had worked for.’
A spokesman for HS2 said: ‘We have to pay the owners what it’s worth.’