Tony Blair’s daughter has upset neighbours in her wealthy west London street over plans to extend her £2.4million home, it was revealed today.
Kathryn Blair, 30, bought the Paddington house with her fiance James in December and wants to expand the five-bedroom house into her back garden.
But the barrister’s neighbours have branded her plans ‘thoughtless vandalism’ and called solar panels on the single-storey extension set to replace her conservatory ‘an unattractive eyesore’.
People in the area told Westminster Council’s planning department Kathryn’s plans to move the gas meter to the front would ‘spoil the praised architectural quality’ of the street.
One said: ‘Given the status of this terrace in the Conservation Area this sort of thoughtless vandalism should not be allowed’.
The Blair family has purchased 38 properties since leaving Downing Street in 2007, with the empire worth an estimated £37.9 million.
Kathryn Blair, 30, bought this west London house in December but her plans to extend have upset the neighbours
Kathryn Blair, pictured with her fiance James and her mother Cherie, already has a £3.6m property empire at the age of 30
Kathryn’s plan is to demolish an existing conservatory and replace it with a new extension.
In a series of damning comments on the plans, one neighbour said: ‘The application is trying to make a much taller extension using misleading examples of much bigger houses further down the street and pretend that those houses are comparable’.
Kathryn Blair, 30, bought the Bayswater property with her fiance James in January
One critic wrote: ‘The proposed full width extension whilst at first seemingly minor, when fully considered, will have a dramatic detrimental effect’.
Another neighbour said: ‘Solar panels on the rear of the building are inappropriate in the Conservation Area and probably ineffective due in that location’.
One resident said: ‘The full-width extension is unsuitable due to the damage its foundations would inflict on the root ball of the beautiful neighbouring bay tree’.
The application was first submitted after they bought the house, before being scrapped and re-submitted in June.
But despite the anger the application was permitted on December 8.
Tony and Cherie Blair have purchased 38 homes since leaving Downing Street in 2007, and the former PM was said to have a property empire that worth an estimated £37.9 million.
The former PM (pictured with children Euan, Kathryn Nicky and Leo, who is holding Cherie’s hand) is now said to have a property empire that worth an estimated £37.9 million
In March 2016 official records revealed that Cherie Blair had been transferring some of the family’s property empire to Kathryn.
The deeds to a £1.4million mews house and a £760,000 country cottage were re-written in Kathryn’s name.
Euan, Kathryn and Nicky Blair’s main homes were said to all lie within walking distance of their parents’ ‘mini-10 Downing Street’-style townhouse in Connaught Square, Central London.
Kathryn used to own a maisonette, bought for her for £975,000 in 2010, but after a frightening experience when she was held at gunpoint by muggers outside, she moved, selling the property for £1.45million in 2015 – a profit of £475,000 in just four years.
How Tony Blair and wife Cherie have amassed a £37million property empire after buying 38 homes since leaving Downing Street a decade ago
The Blairs have purchased 38 homes and an office building since leaving Downing Street 11 years ago, with the total value of their property portfolio now about £38million.
The family is doing the work via their new company, Harcourt Ventures Ltd, set up in March to engage in ‘letting and operating’ properties, according to Companies House records.
The Blair family own one office and 38 homes worth an estimated £33million – meaning the total value of their property portfolio is now about £38million.
They have a series of flats in the North West which Mrs Blair, 62, and eldest son Euan, 33, are renting out via their existing company, Oldbury Residential Ltd.
Contrast: The former Prime Minister’s family have done a deal for three £75,000 one-beds in Stockport, Greater Manchester, taking their total portfolio to 34
London: The Blairs own two £3.6m Grade II listed Georgian townhouses in West London where members of the family live
Companies House documents show Oldbury held property investments worth £2.4million in the year ending April 2016.
Since early disastrous attempts to play the property market, the Blairs have banked at least £1.7million in profits from nine properties bought and sold.
The combined rise in value in the 38 homes they currently own is about £14million.
The Blair property empire includes a Grade II-listed townhouse near Hyde Park worth £8.3m, a £1.7m house nearby and an £8m Grade 1-listed 17th century manor near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire that used to belong to Sir John Gielgud.
Most of the properties are either lived in by Mr Blair and his wife, or their children, with the rest rented out.
The Blairs caused controversy in 2007 when they bought a £3.65million house in exclusive Connaught Square but it led to a rebellion from neighbours who wanted it stopped.
The residents closed ranks and revolted against the then Prime Minister by signing a petition opposing his move into their community.
They feared the Blairs’ very presence would put their lives at risk and who say they have been given no assurances about extra security.
Even local Tory MP Mark Field petitioned on their behalf – but when he raised their concerns with the Prime Minister’s office, he was met with the reply: ‘You ask for details of any security measures, but I am afraid the Prime Minister does not have this information…’
Cherie, 61, and Euan, 31, the wife and son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, also own a four-storey block of 10 flats worth £650,000, earning around £55,000 a year in rent.
Luxury: This townhouse in north London cost the Blairs £1.35million but is worth significantly more now
Concentrated: These two Victorian villas in Urmston, Manchester, have been converted into flats and sold to Mrs Blair and her son for £650,000
Large return: The block of 14 apartments in Stockport, Greater Manchester, on the site of a former scrapyard owned by the Blairs
Expensive business: This £1.2million one-bedroom mews cottage in west London was bought in Cherie Blair’s name
Euan lives with wife Suzanne in a £4.5million Georgian townhouse in Marylebone, central London, jointly owned with Cherie.
Sources close to the family said the Blairs were concenrating on buying properties in the Manchester area as investments.
But Tony Blair, who has earned millions from global consultancy work, has always insisted that reports of his £100m wealth are ‘greatly exaggerated’.
In 2010, he bought a three-bedroom townhouse in London for son Euan. It cost the former Prime Minister £1.3m but he managed to sell it for a healthy profit of more than £800,000, when Euan got married and wanted to upgrade.
Sweet deal: This cute terrace in one of west London’s most expensive cul-de-sacs was bought by Cherie Blair
Rural retreat: A £600,000 cottage in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, which is owned by Tony Blair’s family
However, it has not always been plain sailing on the property market for the family.
Cherie paid £525,000 for two flats in Bristol following a £69,000 discount negotiated by Peter Foster, an Australian conman.
At the time, Foster was dating Mrs Blair’s confidante Carole Caplin, a former topless model.
She sold the first flat in 2008 for £260,000, meaning she made no profit on the property. She tried to sell the second one for £330,000, but was forced to drop the price to £315,000.
Their giant portfolio of 27 flats are mainly located in and around Manchester, especially in Stockport, because of the potential return on their investments from sales or rental income.
The Blair’s £37.9m property empire
This six-storey Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse, London, was bought for £3.62m in 2013 for son Euan
£9.6m Five-storey Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse in London, bought in 2004 for £3.65m
£10.5m Grade I-listed manor house in Buckinghamshire, bought in 2008 for £5.75m
£800k Mews house behind townhouse, London, bought in 2007 with mortgage, since paid off
£2.1m Four-storey Georgian townhouse, London, bought for £1.35m cash for son Nicky in 2012
£1m Three-bed cottage in Buckinghamshire, bought for £600,000 cash in 2013
£4.8m Six-storey Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse, London, bought for £3.62m in 2013 for son Euan and his wife Suzanne
£1.5m Mews house behind Euan’s townhouse for daughter Kathryn, bought for £1.2m in 2014
£800k Ten flats in Manchester bought for £650,000 in September 2014 by Cherie and Euan as a buy-to-let investment
£1.3m Fourteen flats in Stockport bought in 2014 by Cherie and Euan for £1.2m
£250k Three more flats in Stockport, bought in 2015 for £225,000
£280k Four flats in Whalley Range, Manchester, bought in April 2016 for £265,000
£5m Office building for Cherie, London, bought July 2017