One of Britain’s most reclusive billionaires is vying to bankroll a Dubai-style docklands regeneration in his home city of Liverpool.
Fifty years after founding the discount retailer Home Bargains, Tom Morris, touted as the ‘richest scouser ever to have lived’, is bankrolling the construction of ten glitzy towers on the waterfront.
His grand plans include a 727ft 70-storey skyscraper, the seventh tallest in the country, with a vast five-star hotel inside – though you won’t hear it from him.
Quietly accruing his £7billion retail empire, Morris has religiously avoided the limelight, even in Liverpool, despite employing more people in the city than anyone else.
Precious little is known of his astonishing rags-to-riches journey, which began with a bank overdraft to fund his first store in east Liverpool.
So fiercely private is Morris that he refuses any interviews or public appearances, instead dispatching a family member – usually his brother and business partner Joe – if ever an engagement is unavoidable.
When his company donated a mini-bus to a Wigan primary school in 2024, for example, Morris shunned the ceremony and sent his wife to do the handshakes.
In fact, only one photograph of him is known to exist online – an awkward snap of Morris, hands in pockets, alongside Joe and two business associates in 2001.
From left: Joe Morris of Home Bargains (brother of Tom), Francis O’Brien of Arrowcroft, Tom Morris of Home Bargains, Christopher Fox of Arrowcroft
A mock-up of the King development in Liverpool’s docklands, showing the ten unique towers
At the centre of the proposed cluster of towers is a 70-storey skyscraper that at 727ft would be Liverpool’s tallest building – and seventh-tallest in the UK
The Kings development, encircled in red, proposed ten distinct towers, represented by the grey shaded areas
Further details about his personal life are scant, though he is known to have five children with his wife, Kristina O’Hare, and to live in the upmarket seaside town of Lytham St Annes, on the Lancashire coast.
The revelation he is bankrolling the ambitious billion-pound Kings project, therefore, offers a rare insight into his activity. Mr Morris declined the Daily Mail’s invitation to comment on his proposed investment.
Morris’s billion-pound splurge comes as the turnover of his business, TJ Morris Group Limited, which trades as Home Bargains, swelled to £4.5billion last year – landing his family a healthy £66million dividend.
The tycoon’s success can be traced back to his youth. He and his six siblings are third generation shopkeepers, born to the owners of a store on Liverpool’s Scotland Road.
After school, Morris earned an engineering degree, but promptly abandoned the vocation in favour of his bloodline calling – retail.
In 1976, at the age of just 21, he took out an overdraft to fund the opening his first discount shop – then called Home & Bargain – in Liverpool’s eastern Old Swan neighbourhood.
Here he lured in customers by offering toiletries cheaper than elsewhere, and that model has remained largely unchanged.
Home Bargains steadily grew into one of Britain’s largest companies, and now flogs everything from shower gel to hanging baskets – often buying cheap from brands looking to offload stock.
Tom’s brother, Joe, is wheeled out for public engagements, while the billionaire founder avoids all publicity
The tycoon’s wife, Kristina, was sent do the honours at a ceremony when the company, TJ Morris, gifted a minivan to a Wigan primary school for children with special needs
The discount retailer, along with competitors such as Aldi and Lidl, fared particularly well over the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, as shoppers prioritised stocking up on more economical options.
It now boasts more than 600 stores and a workforce of 28,000 – and Morris has ambitions to expand to 1,000 sites in the coming years.
He remains the prime beneficiary from the business, with a 98 percent stake in TJ Morris, but has resisted spending in any way that attracts attention.
A business associate told the Guardian in 2019: ‘Tom is very impressive. There is a humility to him that is very admirable. He is very private and does not flaunt his wealth.’
Humility and privacy do not, it seems, rule out luxury yachts, or private jets with personalised registrations.
Morris is known to own a £38million Bombardier Global 5000 jet with M-ORIS spelled out on the tail, a £34million superyacht called Moskito, and a £7.5million VIP Bell 429 helicopter, which he keeps at Blackpool Airport.
Moskito was one of several Brit-billionaire-owned vessels moored off the Caribbean island of St Barths over the New Years, alongside the likes of Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Having perhaps exhausted the thrills of luxury private travel, Morris has turned to a new sink for his money with the King’s development, which would supercharge the ongoing regeneration of Liverpool’s historic docklands.
The docks were once a post-industrial graveyard of derelict warehouses and grimy waterways, but billions of pound of investment and a flurry of ambitious projects have put a buzz back in the air.
Morris religiously avoids the limelight, with this being the only known photo of him in the public domain
Morris and his wife, Katrina, are known to live in the desirable seaside village of Lytham St Annes, on the Lancashire coastline
Moskito, the luxury superyacht owned by Morris, was moored of the Caribbean island of St Barthes over New Years’ Eve, alongside the likes of Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio
Plans for the plot, set back from Princes Dock between Bath Street and King Edward Street, were dramatically unveiled at the MIPIM property conference in Cannes this week.
They show ten distinct towers overlooking the River Mersey – touted as providing a gateway between the business district and the waterfront.
Its centrepiece is the 70-storey skyscraper that will house 563 luxury apartments, and a 212-room five-star hotel across 23 floors.
Planning consent has already been granted for another of the ten towers, No. 1 Kings, and an environmental impact report submitted, but the masterplan will be handed over to the council in the summer.
Ian Simpson, a co-founding partner of SimpsonHaugh, the architects behind the 70-storey tower, said: ‘This is a landmark intervention for Britain’s most dramatic waterfront skyline.
‘It is rooted in the city’s architectural vernacular and its maritime history but offers a very contemporary expression of both.’
This is not the first time Morris has invested significantly in real estate. In 2021, he bought around 5,000 acres of land in West Lancashire, in a deal thought to be worth up to £50million.
It was purchased by a dedicated holding company, The Halsall Estate, which said at the time the aim of the acquisition was to ‘work with local farmers to grow and promote British produce’.
Occasional modest donations by TJ Morris to the Labour Party have been made public, including £5,000 to Health Secretary Wes Streeting in 2023, and £10,000 in support of Steve Rotheram’s successful campaign to become Liverpool’s mayor in 2017.
A baby hospice, Zoe’s Place, was also saved from closure last year thanks to a £2.5million charitable donation from the company, alongside a major community push.
