Entrepeneur Mark Hogan owns the type of property most could only dream of.
There’s the outdoor pool, the bespoke putting green on the lawn, the home gym and the ‘superb show garage’ which, at one time, held a Bentley, a Porsche and a Range Rover.
If that wasn’t enough, this stunning barn conversion, set in almost five acres of land, offers views of the majestic South Downs National Park from the plush chairs dotted around his expansive garden.
For almost 15 years, Mr Hogan, 59, has called this stone-walled retreat home. It sits opposite a 16th Century church in the picture-postcard village of Washington, West Sussex. But Mr Hogan is now selling up – and an estate agency advert online gives an insight into the lifestyle his business interests have afforded him.
Inside, gold chandeliers hang from exposed timber beams in the living room while a free-standing, copper-plated bath sits at the foot of a king-size bed in one bedroom.
Today, this stunning property could be yours for £2.65 million (double what the Hogans paid in 2011). But how has Mr Hogan afforded a house like this? After all, he is not a City banker or a high-flying lawyer.
Mr Hogan is a tycoon of a very different ilk. He is the brains behind a solar-farm company which was this month given the go-ahead by the Government to carpet more than 3,000 acres of East Yorkshire countryside in giant panels.
No doubt his extraordinary home has provided an idyllic hideaway from his day job, which involves multi-million-pound corporate deals involving overseas investors and the Government.
That Mr Hogan, 59, has been able to enjoy largely unimpeded views of ‘some of the best countryside in the South East’, as the advertisement for his property gushes, while East Yorkshire residents close to his new solar development will soon be gazing at fields of thousands of 3.5-metre-high panels, is, for them, just the latest kick in the teeth.
For 18 months, hundreds of villagers have been protesting about the plans and wrangling with the Planning Inspectorate to halt the development
Many see the plans by Ed Miliband (pictured) as deeply hypocritical, given that his wife, Dame Justine Thornton, has objected to a new block of flats near the family’s North London home, claiming the project was ‘too tall, too bulky and too dense’
For 18 months, hundreds of villagers have been protesting about the plans and wrangling with the Planning Inspectorate to halt the development. Yet Energy Minister Lord Hunt, on behalf of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, gave East Yorkshire Solar Farm – proposed by Mr Hogan’s Boom Power Ltd and financed by a German investment firm – the green light. It is hoped that, when the sun is shining, the park will produce approximately 400 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 100,000 homes.
The proposals, straddling the idyllic hamlets of Gribthorpe, Spaldington and Brind, near Howden (250 miles from Mr Hogan’s home), will see tracker panels, which follow the sun, placed in fields previously used for arable farming and surrounded by 2.2-metre-high ‘deer-proof fencing’ with CCTV cameras.
The development, almost as large as the city of Durham, is so vast that it was considered a ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’, meaning the decision to approve its construction lay not with the local council but Miliband, who is desperately trying to achieve Labour’s aim of Net Zero emissions by 2050. Fresh fears were raised about Miliband’s green energy blitz last week when it was revealed that ‘kill switches’ have been found hidden in American solar farms manufactured by unnamed Chinese companies.
Sources said that the remote switches could give Beijing the ability to inflict blackouts on the West, prompting calls for Miliband to halt the roll-out of solar parks in Britain.
Last week in the Commons, local MP Sir David Davis claimed the Yorkshire solar farm had been approved ‘on the nod’ and the decision ‘rode roughshod over the desires and wishes and expressed complaints of my constituents’, claiming: ‘It was little more than a rubber-stamping operation.’
I paid a visit to company director Alison Taylor at her cottage in Spaldington, just down the road from Sir David’s house. Sitting in her garden, she pores over a map outlining the scale of the solar park and points to the hedge marking her garden boundary, beyond which are green fields that fade into the horizon.
For years, these beautiful views have been a backdrop to walks with her labrador, Charlie. The bridleways and footpaths are beloved by villagers who have escaped the rat race.
Those who live here – miles from any shops or, heaven forbid, pubs – say they have sacrificed the benefits of town living in favour of a more old-fashioned, community-oriented way of living where the surrounding countryside is all the entertainment they need.
Now, though, Mrs Taylor said: ‘From every window of our house, solar panels will be all we see.
‘Instead of looking at hedges and fields, we will be looking at solar panels almost the height of a double-decker bus. This is about getting the message out to the wider public that this is really happening.’
Recounting the moment she learned the plan had been approved, she added: ‘[I was] shocked, stunned, let down, angry, upset. People can’t really believe it’s actually happening.
‘Some people can’t even bring themselves to talk about it. People moved here for a reason. To me, it’s like living in London and they cover Hyde Park in solar panels.’
Many see Miliband’s plans as deeply hypocritical, given that his wife, Dame Justine Thornton, has objected to a new block of flats near the family’s North London home, claiming the project was ‘too tall, too bulky and too dense’.
The development, almost as large as the city of Durham, is so vast that it was considered a ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’
The decision to grant planning approval attracted wider attention last week when Victoria Aitken, the area’s local Conservative councillor, stood in one of the fields set to be developed and recorded a video outlining her concerns.
In it, she described how her fellow residents were ‘devastated’ and claimed the move away from arable farming was putting ‘food security at risk’. She called for panels to be placed on brownfield sites, car parks, industrial estates and rooftops instead.
‘This isn’t progress,’ she said, ‘It’s a reckless policy that threatens the UK’s food security and rural heritage. And if we don’t challenge it now, it won’t stop with East Yorkshire. If you care about our rural landscape, our agricultural future and the food we grow in Britain, then make your voice heard.’
Within a couple of days, her post had been viewed 800,000 times and shared almost 7,000 times on X alone.
It’s no wonder. Thousands across the country now find themselves in similar positions, with Labour aiming to push through planning decisions on renewable energy developments at pace to meet its targets. In just his first eight weeks in office, Mr Miliband approved four large solar projects despite strong local opposition.
‘I’m very surprised so many people shared it,’ Ms Aitken told me later. ‘It made me realise the power of social media.’
She feels that, despite the consultation process, it was ‘more about consulting on mitigation. It felt like the decision had been made’.
In the hamlet of Gribthorpe, which will be largely surrounded by panels after local farmers agreed to lease their land to Boom Power for the development, a gang of villagers lament that their rural idyll will be shattered.
It isn’t just the sight of the panels which will have an effect – construction is set to take approximately two years. During that time large HGVs and tractors will be going up and down these small country roads and it is feared the area’s wildlife, such as deer and owls, could be disturbed.
Retired engineer Steve Elphick, 67, said: ‘This is our life and it’s being taken away from us. It’s about our mental health and wellbeing. We are on a war footing now.’
Caroline Grant, who is in campaign group East Riding Against Solar Expansion, called on Miliband to visit the area and to ‘take full responsibility for his decision to secure the destruction of the countryside.’
Garage owner Paul Roddison and his wife Janine, a retired nurse, moved to their dream home in Spaldington just four years ago.
On two sides of their large, lawned garden are farmers’ fields – a perfect view from a chair on the patio to enjoy a cold beer after work, as Mr Roddison was doing when I arrived.
Garage owner Paul Roddison and his wife Janine, a retired nurse, moved to their dream home in Spaldington just four years ago
That view will no longer exist, as the fields will be filled with solar panels. ‘I hate him,’ Mrs Roddison said of the farmer who decided to accept Boom’s 30 pieces of silver on his land.
‘We moved here for the location and the quietness, not for chuffing 3.5-metre-high panels.’
Most people I speak to say the same about the farmers who have decided to sell up: they can barely bring themselves to look at them, never mind talk to them.
But, for the farm owners, it comes down to cold, hard cash at a time when farming is stifled by inheritance tax and red tape.
Local landowners can expect an annual rent of £150 to £200 an acre if they let their fields to tenant farmers. However, solar firms have been known to pay over £1,000 per acre per year for land given over for development.
‘The farmers have a golden goose that has suddenly landed on their field,’ Ms Aitken said. ‘They would be foolish to shoo it off and now allow it to lay its golden egg.’
The Mail on Sunday spoke to one farmer who has leased his land to the developers but he is bound by a confidentiality agreement on the terms of the lease. He said: ‘It’s a shame if people are upset. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.’
For their part, Boom Power feel as if they have taken every necessary step to get the project over the line. Jack Spurway, the firm’s head of planning, said that ‘any suggestion that the public haven’t been involved is, frankly, b*****ks.’
Boom says that, following the consultation process, they have agreed to create ‘wildlife habitats’ such as ‘grassland and woodland zones’ during the construction, ‘screening vegetation’ will reduce the ‘visual impact’ and hedges will be preserved to ‘enhance the rural character of the landscape’.
It is the first such ‘nationally significant’ project for which Boom has achieved planning permission, having only formed in 2019. But under a previous incarnation as Wirsol Energy Ltd it achieved planning consent for Cleve Hill Solar Park in Kent. When construction is completed, the South Downs one will be the largest solar park in the country.
Like many solar farm projects which could be green-lit by the Government, East Yorkshire Solar Farm is being bankrolled by foreign investment, in this case, German renewable energy investment firm Pelion Green Future.
Pelion was previously investing in Island Green Power, which plans to build a large solar farm in Wiltshire. That firm is now owned by Macquarie, the ruthless Australian investment firm nicknamed the ‘Vampire Kangaroo’. It is known in Britain for its ownership of Thames Water for 11 years until 2017 when it loaded the privatised water company with £10.8billion of debt while rewarding shareholders by paying handsome dividends.
But back to the East Yorkshire project. Lord Hunt has said that by ‘continuing to say yes to clean, homegrown power, we are building the foundation of an energy system that can bring down families’ bills for good’.
And describing his joy after the project was given the go-ahead, Mr Hogan said: ‘Securing development consent for the East Yorkshire Solar Farm is not only a proud and significant moment for Boom Power but marks a major advancement in the
UK’s clean energy landscape and demonstrates our capability to deliver nationally significant infrastructure.’
Capability which, if his current property is anything to go by, has rewarded him very handsomely indeed.
