The most expensive item Tory politician Michael Heseltine bought himself for fun is a £4,000 golf buggy to move around his 70-acre garden with ease.
Lord Heseltine, who recently turned 90, owns Haymarket Publishing and lives with his wife Anne at Thenford House, a Georgian estate in Northamptonshire.
He tells Donna Ferguson that one of the life lessons he’s learned is “show me the problem, show me the person in charge.”
He says one of his top priorities is to enjoy the life and time he has left.
What did your parents teach you about money?
Be careful and careful with it as there wasn’t much of it around. My father was a structural engineer and became director of a listed engineering firm. My mother belonged to the generation of stay-at-home moms.
Living the dream: Lord Heseltine lives with his wife Anne at Thenford House, a Georgian estate in Northamptonshire
I had a very good standard middle-class upbringing in Swansea, where we had a house on the Gower Road in Sketty.
I remember my father looking anxiously at one of my school bills. I went to Shrewsbury which is an independent school and I don’t think there was much room for them to cut in their budget.
Have you ever had trouble making ends meet?
I started my own publishing company, Haymarket, with colleagues in 1957 and in 1962 we made a disastrous decision.
We bought a magazine called Topic, which was designed to compete with Time and Newsweek. It was the biggest money mistake I ever made. We got the editorial quality right, but we never got the ads.
You know you’re struggling when the bills are in front of you and you don’t have the money to pay them.
Have you ever been paid stupid money?
There is no such thing as foolish money in my eyes.
What was the best year of your financial life?
It should have been 1997 when we Tories lost the election. I returned to my publishing house and my two colleagues, who successfully managed the company in my absence, were tired of our American company, which had never turned a profit. I decided to look at it before closing it.
It quickly became clear to me that we were missing an entrepreneurial sales manager and that the person who wanted to buy the company was exactly the person the company needed. So I told my colleagues that we were not going to sell.
Since then, we’ve recruited the right people and the US business is now 50 percent of my publishing company, Haymarket Media Group. One lesson I’ve learned over the years is show me the problem, show me the person responsible.
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought for fun?
My golf cart. I consider it a striking extravagance, but it is a working tool, because my garden, which is open to the public and regarded with some acclaim, covers 70 acres. If someone calls me back home, it can be a ten to fifteen minute walk from wherever I am.
Driving force: Lord Heseltine bought his golf buggy in 1992 for £4,000
I bought it for £4,000 in 1992 after having a heart attack and wouldn’t know what to do without it.
Are you saving for a pension?
No, Haymarket is my pension. Of course I also have a pension as a former minister. But I have no independent pension savings outside my company, or even equity investments, apart from £500 worth of Marks & Spencer shares, which I bought in 1955.
They’re probably worth more now.
Why not invest in the stock market?
I prefer to invest in the company I understand. Haymarket is not a publicly traded company, it is a family business and we want to keep it that way.
Do you own real estate?
Yes, my home, a Grade II listed Georgian house in Northamptonshire.
I bought it in 1976. I’d rather not say how much I paid for it, but it would have to be a very dull and ordinary house if it hadn’t increased in value since then.
Inflation is the great creator of apparent wealth. It’s a delusion, but we’ve all seen the value of our properties rise dramatically.
What’s the one luxury you treat yourself to?
Jelly babies. I have no idea how much they cost because my kids and other people give them to me.
When you enter my office, you will see a tray of it.
I don’t want to reveal a weakness in my ability. But it’s fair to say I’m addicted to jelly babies.
Sweet tooth: Lord Heseltine is addicted to jelly babies, which his children and other people give him
If you were Chancellor, what would you do first?
I would reduce the number of local authorities from the current 300 to 60, and I would create much more powerful decentralized authorities instead of the 60 that remained, with directly elected mayors.
If we did, we would transform the performance of our nation’s economy by building bottom-up partnerships based on the real strengths and opportunities of our very different constituents of the economy.
It would have a huge impact because to build the strategy – which I would help fund them – they would have to consult all the strengths of their local community, from their local universities to the private sector, the third sector and the mainstream sector . gamblers in the street.
There would be a wave of enthusiasm for the regeneration of local towns and cities.
This is what every other advanced economy does, from America and Japan to Germany and France. They focus on the strengths of the local economies, while we have a functional department in Whitehall that imposes a centralist vision on the local population.
Do you donate to a good cause?
Of course – one of the main charities I have supported is the Oxford Union. I consider serving in the Oxford Union one of the great privileges of my life. It is this extraordinary stepping stone for young graduates into a wider world of politics.
What is your first financial priority?
The fate of my family depends on Haymarket’s success, so it is my number one financial priority.
Since I’m 90, another big priority is to enjoy my life. If I have one grudge against the younger generation, it’s that they have time. And I’m jealous.
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