Former soccer boss Harry Redknapp is going green – and making the transfer into an eco-house.
The forward-thinking ex-Spurs gaffer is building an environmentally-friendly gaff full of state-of-the-art energy-saving gizmos.
Harry, 73 – who grew up on a tough estate in London’s East End – and wife Sandra, 74, can’t wait to move into their new five-bedroom mansion, in his adopted hometown of Poole, Dorset.
Planning documents seen by the Sunday Mirror reveal the mansion boasts a raft of measures designed at cutting emissions, including high-tech solar panels – some in the windows – a water-saving system plus “energy efficient lighting and appliances”.
I’m A Celeb winner Harry, who this year starred in Harry Redknapp’s Sandbanks Summer has spent more than £2million on the pad.
Last night Greenpeace hailed Harry’s green goals.
The charity’s climate chief Rosie Rogers said: “Swapping ordinary windows for solar-powered ones is definitely the best substitution Harry Redknapp has ever made.
“Football has a pretty big carbon footprint, so it’s great to see icons of the game, such as Harry, doing their bit to tackle the climate emergency and setting a good example for the sport and its fans to follow.”
Harry – who as well as Tottenham managed West Ham, QPR, Bournemouth and Birmingham – is not the first footie star to go green.
When Manchester United right back Richard Eckersley retired from the game in 2015, he confessed: “I’m more passionate about the environment than football” before heading off to run the UK’s first zero waste food shop in Totnes, Devon.
Sky pundit Gary Neville dreamed of living in a Teletubbies-style “earth shelter” with solar panels and wind turbine.
He said: “I want to... become someone who makes a far lower environmental impact in their life.” But though he had it all to play for, his 2010 for the wacky home were rejected by Bolton council.
Gary’s old Man Utd team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – now boss of The Reds – had better luck going green.
He built an eco-house in Cheshire in 2009 with solar panels and ground-source heat pumps to warm up his swimming pool.
Figures from The Solar Trade Association show more than 1million UK homeowners now use solar technology – and make average energy costs savings of £653 a year.
