NIGEL Farage’s neighbours say they’re bracing for a “nightmare” as the Reform leader makes major plans to overhaul his seaside home.
The Brexit champion – and newly-elected Clacton MP – wants to knock down a derelict house on the Kent coast and replace it with a three-storey newbuild.
The Westminster outsider turned insider is now vying to replace the current house with a much swankier three-bedroom home.
The plan submitted to the local council has three bedrooms – including an entire floor for the master suite.
People living along the residential road in the seaside town say they are glad to see the upgrade Farage is making.
Many described the current derelict and overgrown building as an “eyesore” with no locals yet objecting to the planning application.
Janie Barnard, 64, lives on the opposite side of the road to the run down house.
She said: “It is a bit of an eyesore that thing anyway so I think it will be alright.
“I think as long as it’s in keeping, but then along here you can get some absolute eyesores.”
Janie does not believe the controversial figure will live there himself.
She joked: “He owns a house further down so I think he will probably rent it out – you know what Nigel Farage is like!
“Lots of people do it around here. I don’t think it’ll make much difference. A lot are rented down here.
“I’m quite looking forward to seeing what he’s going to do.
“It is going to be three stories, but we don’t have a sea view here so it doesn’t make any difference.”
Janie has concerns about if the planners are taking sewage into account enough when considering applications.
She said: “I hope so, but that is a problem – the sewage going into the sea.”
The neighbours opposite the proposed building, pensioners aged 75 and 74, had not looked at the plans in great detail.
However they are glad the derelict property will be getting some much needed TLC.
One of the pensioners said: “We haven’t got a problem at all with it – it can only improve it!
“Around here, as people pass away, people are buying the properties and doing them all up which does us a favour in a way.”
She added: “I haven’t got a problem with it apart from the building work and all the various lorries which is going to be a nightmare.”
Her husband estimated that the houses on the same side of the road as Farage’s new venture are around £150,000 more expensive than ones on their side of the street thanks to the sea view.
He also said that when properties in the area are upgraded it raises the value of their home.
One woman, aged 22, who moved to the area in January this year, said: “I think it will help to develop the area.”
She generally goes the other way down the road to do her shopping so is not concerned about the impact the construction might have on her daily life.
A local business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I think it’ll be nice, better than that eyesore that it is, won’t it?
“Because it is a bit of a monster. Anything nice to look at is better than an old banger isn’t it?”
She added: “Tell him to spend more money in the community!”
A customer added that the politician has been known to fish in the area.
He was seen in the Jolly Fisherman pub just a few weeks before the planning application was submitted.
Steve Bradshaw, 72, who used to run a plant nursery on the street, said: “It looks a bit derelict now.”
He added: “It doesn’t really worry me, because the Dutch barn one next door, that’s all new.”
The current 1950s building has peeling paint and an overgrown garden, but is surrounded by brand new homes – many of them in the midst of their own renovation projects.
Steve said: “I think it looks a bit dilapidated. As long as it’s not a six storey block of flats I don’t care.
“There is a lot of building work happening in the area with a thousand homes under construction in New Romney near to the planned house.
“We’ve had the traffic lights on and off for weeks and weeks so it does not really inconvenience me.
“I’m just waiting for the time I can afford to knock my house down!”
His wife Kim, 65, added: “They’re building all over there anyway. We don’t mind him anyway.”
Nigel Farage has been approached for comment.
By Martina Bet, Political Correspondent
NIGEL Farage’s main goal during the election campaign was to inflict maximum damage to the Tories.
Reform ate into the Conservative vote across the country allowing Labour to gain a massive majority – and bring in five MPs of its own.
While support for the party is too evenly spread to win many seats, it is undeniable “the people’s revolt” has split the rightwing vote and cost the Tories many seats.
For Farage – who supposedly retired from politics in 2016 after the Brexit vote – had initially said he wouldn’t stand in this general election.
Yet, like some evergreen end-of-the-pier act, he couldn’t resist the lure of the spotlight.
At his eighth attempt, the 60-year-old is finally a member of Parliament.
In Clacton he swept away a stonking 25,000 Tory majority – like a sandcastle disappearing at high tide – to win by more than 8,000 votes.
Reform now have an East Coast fiefdom, winning Boston and Skegness, Great Yarmouth as well as holding Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.
Clacton was one of Brexit’s most fertile breeding grounds. More than 70 per cent voted to quit the EU in 2016’s referendum.
Little wonder Mr Farage cherry-picked the constituency to break his Westminster duck.
It also comes after Farage has been courting the youth vote since coming third place on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! last year.
The reality TV stint helped him reach a new audience and he now has over 810,000 followers on TikTok and has had 14 million likes.
But now that mission is accomplished, what comes next?
The Brexit champion let it slip during his victory speech: becoming the thorn in Labour’s side.
He issued a stark warning to Sir Keir Starmer, insisting there is no “enthusiasm” for him and that his Government will be “in trouble” very quickly.
Farage also made it clear he wants to use Reform’s results as a springboard for the next election.
He wants to build what he calls a “mass national movement” in order to become a “big enough challenge” for Labour in 2029.
Lots of Brexit-voting constituencies have returned to Sir Keir’s party.
With a track record of smashing up the status quo in British politics and his new powerful platform in Parliament, Sir Keir should not -in any way- underestimate the Reform surge.
