As many Britons face rising electricity bills and try to limit their energy use, additional equipment has recently been installed in a remote part of North Yorkshire at Sunaka Estate to provide more electricity from the national electricity grid at the Prime Minister’s house. The renovation follows Sunak’s construction of a new heated swimming pool, gym and tennis court on the grounds of the mansion which he occupies on weekends. Engineers had to install a significant amount of equipment and a new connection to the national grid, which crosses open fields.
Sunak will personally bear the cost of the power supply upgrade, which is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of pounds, in addition to current pool power consumption costs. Construction work on Sunak’s 12-meter private swimming pool has been completed, as many municipal swimming pools, including those in his area, have been forced to reduce operating hours due to rising energy costs . This week the House of Commons Culture Select Committee urged the government to offer more help for swimming pools in the next budget, explaining that 350 swimming pools in Britain have closed or reduced their opening hours due to energy costs. Just last month the operators of a municipal swimming pool near the prime minister’s house said they had cut off public access due to rising energy costs. In the meantime, the government is preparing to end its electricity bill relief program, although it could extend it temporarily next week.
Sunaka Country Estate is an imposing Grade II listed estate with extensive gardens, a private lake, dam and courts. The house is surrounded by isolated farm buildings and in the immediate vicinity are three other private houses, the farm itself and the remains of a medieval settlement. The new top notch swimming pool was built on agricultural land which until recently was used for grazing animals. The surrounding fields still show remnants of ancient furrow cultivation, a stark contrast to Sunak’s other private homes, which are a new apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California and a stable in central London.
Sunak, 42, married to the daughter of Indian billionaire Narayat Murthy, bought a £1.5million (nearly $2million) house in 2015 shortly after becoming a constituency MP of Richmond. He still visits the house regularly, although he often eschews a direct rail link from London to nearby Northallerton in favor of a personally paid helicopter flight.
When Sunak received permission to build the pool in 2021, local councilors were told the building was designed to look like a converted farmhouse, clad in local stone and blending in with the area. But at the meeting, local councilor John Noone said: ‘It doesn’t look like a farm building to me, it looks like a pretty big estate.
