While a growing number of households across the UK are feeling the bite of a cost of living crisis, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak seems unfazed by having to pay £13,000 ($16.7) a year to heat his new pool, reported the Mirror.
With global energy and fuel prices skyrocketing in recent months, driving a rise in the energy price cap for consumers as of 1 April, the cost of heating Sunak’s pool is also to increase by up to £3,500 a year.
Sunak, who has also been a Richmond MP since 2015, has been building facilities that include a pool, gym and tennis courts at his country manor in his North Yorkshire constituency.
According to current industry figures, Rishi Sunak’s new pool would require 116KW of electricity to maintain a 25C temperature daily. If heated with mains electricity daily at a cost of 28p per KWh, the overall sum would amount to £12,959.09 a year.
This figure represents an estimated six-and-a-half times the average energy bill for a UK family home.
According to British Gas, the average annual energy bill for a three-bedroom house under the new price cap set by regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is £1,970.57.
The keep fit enthusiast and his wife, daughter of the billionaire founder of the Indian-headquartered company Infosys, worth approximately £690m, in which she holds a 0.9% stake, bought their gated Grade II-listed manor near Northallerton, North Yorks, in 2015.
Last year, the couple lodged a planning application for a separate stone building on a paddock to house a gym, a 12-metre by 5-metre L-shaped swimming pool, four showers and utilities and storage rooms.
Sunak is said to use his Yorkshire property when Parliament is not in session and he doesn't need to be in London. Together with his wife, he has been living in a flat above No 10 Downing Street. However, they have since moved to their mews house in Kensington. The couple also own a home in Santa Monica, California, reportedly worth £5.5 million.
Once the report on projected heating costs of the new pool broke, York Labour MP Rachel Maskell was cited as commenting:
“Could a Tory Chancellor be any more out of touch if they tried? He may have now given up his US green card but as far as most people are concerned Rishi Sunak is living on another planet”.
Some of the multi-millionaire ex-banker’s constituents were cited as voicing resentment.
“That’s disgraceful. They should fill it up with mud”, a trader, shouted. Another woman, a retired shopworker, was quoted as saying:
“It is disgusting, especially in these times. They have no idea how normal people live. They just don’t care”.
The report will hardly make Rishi Sunak more popular, as the politician who made a fortune in investment banking before becoming an MP has recently come under fire over his financial affairs.
It has been revealed that Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, who comes from a wealthy Indian family that owns the multinational information technology company Infosys, worth approximately £690m, has non-domiciled status.
Accordingly, the mother of his two children has dodged paying tax on foreign income, while Sunak himself was revealed as having held a US green card 18 months into his role as chancellor.
In the aftermath of the furore, Murty released a statement saying she would now pay UK tax on her worldwide income, while a spokesperson for Sunak claimed that "all laws and rules have been followed and full taxes have been paid where required in the duration he held his green card".