RISHI Sunak is aiming to build a swimming pool and gym in a £250,000 development next to his home.
The Chancellor has applied for planning permission for the L-shaped pool house beside his £2million Grade II listed manor in the country.
Mr Sunak, 41, also wants to lay a tennis court beside the detached building at his spread in North Yorkshire, which he visits at weekends.
He will need permission for the “change of use” from agricultural land — a grass paddock — to build his 68ft by 66ft complex.
Mr Sunak, whose wife Akshata is the daughter of one of India’s richest men, will also have to hope there are no great crested newts nearby.
An ecology survey has shown that three local lakes may be home to the rare, protected amphibians. If Mr Sunak gets the all-clear to build, he will have to stop if any are discovered.
Planning documents revealed the pool house would also include a hot tub, utility and changing area and plant room. Mr Sunak’s planning agent said it had been designed to look like a “stone-built agricultural building that has undergone renovation”.
But in an ecological impact assessment, expert Emily Ramsden said a lake to the south of the development was an “average quality habitat” for great crested newts.
Another to the north was also rated average, the third “below average”.
She said: “If any great crested newts are found during the works then all works must cease, and further advice sought from the ecologist or Natural England.”
Planners at Hambleton Council will decide next month on the application, but no neighbours have objected.
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