Plans for an extension to Robert Jenrick’s £2.6m Westminster home were rejected three times by officials before being granted by Conservative councillors.
The housing secretary bought the five-bedroom house on Vincent Square in October 2013 and swiftly submitted plans for an £830,000 remodelling.
The proposals were twice rejected by planning officers on the grounds that it would damage the character and appearance of the building and the surrounding conservation area. A third application, for a slightly larger version of the same scheme, was submitted in August 2014, just after Jenrick had been elected as Conservative MP for Newark.
This time officers objected on the same grounds, but a Conservative councillor, who happens to live on the same square, asked for the decision to be referred to committee. In November 2014 the three Conservative members of the four-person planning committee voted to approve the scheme.
