Plenty of space for a jerry can, Mr Maude? Minister who sparked fuel panic puts £1.5m mansion on market - but Katie Price HAS moved in next door

By Jo Macfarlane for MailOnline

Published: 18:05 EDT, 31 March 2012 | Updated: 05:41 EDT, 10 July 2012

Downsizing: Francis Maude and wife Christina have put their sprawling home on the market

With its elegantly landscaped gardens, butler’s pantry and tennis court, there is certainly plenty of space on this 12-acre estate to store a spare jerry can or two.

This is the £1.5 million country pile being sold by Tory minister Francis Maude, who sparked panic last week by urging motorists to hoard petrol to avoid running out – and instead prematurely ensured the fuel pumps ran dry.

Queues formed at petrol stations and ‘No Fuel Left’ signs went up as worried drivers followed Government advice to keep their tanks topped up after a strike vote by tanker drivers.

Mr Maude weighed in with the message that keeping ‘extra fuel in a jerry can’ would be a ‘sensible precaution’.

But after the fire service responded to the suggestion with anger and astonishment his advice was overturned, leading to calls for him to resign.

The millionaire MP put his sprawling country property on the market apparently after realising his new neighbours were glamour model Katie Price – formerly known as Jordan – and Grammy Award-winning singer Adele.

Mr Maude’s nine-bedroom mansion, said to be a fine example of late Arts and Crafts architecture, has been up for sale for the last couple of months.

It has been claimed that the millionaire MP and his wife Christina are keen to down-size now that their five children have flown the nest.

After all, it must take a lot of work to maintain the extensive property, which also boasts a game larder, separate lavatory for the gardener, an orchard and an eight-acre paddock with sweeping views of the South Downs.

But it may not be a coincidence that Ms Price, 33, paid £2.5 million in 2010 for a property which happens to share a substantial border with the Maudes’ home.

The reality television star moved in last July following her split with cage fighter Alex Reid.
Locals in the sleepy hamlet of Dial Post, West Sussex, say the arrival of Ms Price has ‘lowered the tone’, with her gaudy pink Land Rover causing particular irritation – quite apart from the constant presence of camera crews.

Meanwhile, London-born Adele has been renting a £7million, ten-bedroom former convent a couple of miles from the Maude family home. She moved in earlier this year.

The singer, 24, who swept the boards on both sides of the Atlantic at the recent Grammys and the BRIT Awards, has claimed the mansion – which is set in 25 acres of grounds and has a helicopter landing pad – might be haunted.

Luxury lifestyle: The extensive country pile boasts a game larder, separate lavatory for the gardener, an orchard and an eight-acre paddock with sweeping views of the South Downs

The picturesque area has long attracted wealthy families seeking extensive country properties because it has good transport links into central London.

But it has also recently become popular with celebrities keen to escape the city and enjoy the privacy of a country retreat.

Mr Maude, 58, a former director of investment bank Salomon Brothers, bought his home in 1996 for £342,500 and stands to make a substantial profit of nearly £1.2million from the sale.

It is built in the local ‘Wealden’ style, according to the estate agents, and made of oak, iron and clay.
The reception rooms are described as ‘elegant, yet homely’ and there is an ‘impressive staircase’ that leads to a galleried upper landing.

Neighbours: Top left, Mr Maude's lavish home and grounds and, bottom left, the mansion that has recently been bought by glamour model Katie Price, right

All the bedrooms have stunning views of the surrounding countryside, although the master bedroom is said to enjoy the most spectacular outlook.

There is the requisite oil-fired Aga in the kitchen, which has plenty of room for ‘informal meals’, many storerooms throughout the house – perfect for storing the occasional fuel container – and five boxes for horses adjacent to the paddock Mr Maude was originally refused permission to claim expenses on the mortgage in 2004 because his country home was classed as his main residence.

He later bought a flat in Kennington, South London, on which he successfully re-claimed £35,000 worth of mortgage interest payments on expenses.

Mr Maude is currently Cabinet Office Minister with responsibilities for crisis management, and Paymaster General.

His father, Angus Maude, served as Paymaster General in Mrs Thatcher’s Government.
Asked about the sale of the Maude family home yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Maude said that he had never employed a butler or a gardener, and that he did not need a butler’s pantry or gardener’s lavatory.

He added that the family used the game larder for general storage purposes.

‘Mr Maude and his wife are downsizing now their five grownup children are leaving home, and are seeking a smaller property,’ the spokesman said.

Fuel panic may be good, said PM

By SIMON WALTERS and GLEN OWEN

'Resilience': David Cameron is determined not to be 'held to ransom' by striking tanker drivers

David Cameron told shocked Ministers ‘a bit of petrol panic may be no bad thing’ as he set out his determination to defeat the threatened strike by fuel-tanker drivers.

According to senior sources, his provocative remark was made at the end of a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday that was dominated by the dispute.

Mr Cameron told Ministers that he refused to be ‘held to  ransom’ by Unite, the union leading the strike call.

Asked if the Prime Minister had said ‘a bit of petrol panic may be no bad thing’, a Downing Street spokesman initially said he had ‘no recollection’ of any such remark, before denying the comment was made.

However, Cabinet sources told The Mail on Sunday Mr Cameron did make the comment.

In a powerful rallying cry to Ministers, Mr Cameron said it was vital to build up the nation’s ‘resilience’ to a walkout by tanker drivers. Measures  included training more Army drivers to replace tanker drivers and finding other ways of keeping petrol stations open.

It was after hearing Mr Cameron’s powerful intervention that Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, one of his closest allies who is tasked with leading the contingency plans, issued his notorious call to the public to fill jerry cans with petrol as well as topping up their cars.

Within hours, his advice had been overturned after the Fire Brigade raised concerns about health and safety implications.

By Wednesday, the panic anticipated by Mr Cameron and his team became reality as millions of motorists rushed to fill up.

But the Government went into reverse gear yesterday, telling drivers not to fill up their cars.

The U-turn came after union leaders said there would be no strike before Easter. Conciliation service ACAS will tomorrow host talks between the union and the fuel distribution companies in an attempt to resolve the deadlock over working conditions.

• A mother who suffered 40 per cent burns to her body while decanting petrol in her kitchen was being kept in a medically induced coma last night. Diane Hill was ‘critical but stable’ at Pinderfield Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where she has had skin grafts. The 46-year-old from York was pouring fuel into a jug to top up her daughter’s car when vapours were ignited by fumes from the gas hob on which she was cooking.