Sir Terry Wogan’s son has criticised Rachel Reeves for “killing off the housing market” after failing to sell his father’s £3.75m family home.
Mark Wogan, 51, put the beloved DJ’s 6,500 square foot seven-bedroom property up for sale in November, but not one person has been to view or make an offer on the house, named Hitcham Close.
“You’d think someone would come round, even just out of interest, thinking, ‘Oh, I’d quite like to go round and see Terry Wogan’s house,” Mark told TalkTV.
“But no one’s come to see it. No one, not one single person. That’s how dead the economy is.”
Mark blamed the lack of interest in the Buckinghamshire property on the chancellor.
Wogan bought the property in 1975, and raised Mark and his two siblings, Alan and Katherine there. It was passed on to the former BBC Radio 2 presenter’s wife, Lady Helen, when he died in 2016.
When Lady Helen died last year, Wogan’s children and grandchildren inherited Hitcham Close with Mark and his siblings expecting to inherit more than £1m each from the sale.
The house has five reception rooms, a utility room, a pantry and ensuite bedrooms, and is 30 minutes from Paddington station.
Looking back on his memories of his time spent in the house, Mark said: “We're a close family, so the kitchen was central to everything.”
He added Lady Helen had been a “fantastic cook” and the family had enjoyed “some lovely long lunches on the terrace in the summer overlooking mum’s beloved garden” on the grounds.
“It's a thing of beauty. We'll miss the house very much. But it'll [give] someone a great place to raise a family,” Mark said.
Wogan, who hosted Wake Up to Wogan on BBC Radio 2 from 1993 to 2009, fell in love with Taplow while visiting a friend, Kits Browning – the son of Daphne du Maurier – there in 1969.
The broadcaster moved to the village with his wife Helen in 1975 to raise their children and described the area, where he lived privately for 40 years, as a “sanctuary” where he could escape public attention.
