Lord Heseltine talks to ME & MY MONEY

The most expensive item Tory politician Michael Heseltine bought himself for fun is a £4,000 golf buggy to get around his 70-acre garden easily. 

Lord Heseltine, who recently turned 90, owns Haymarket Publishing and lives with his wife Anne in Thenford House, a Georgian property in Northamptonshire. 

He tells Donna Ferguson one of the lessons in life he has learned is ‘show me the problem, show me the person in charge’. 

He says one of his top priorities is to enjoy life and the time he has left. 

What did your parents teach you about money?

To be prudent and careful with it because there wasn’t much of it around. My father was a structural engineer who became a director of a publicly quoted engineering company. My mother belonged to the generation of mothers who stayed at home.

Living the dream: Lord Heseltine lives with his wife Anne in Thenford House, a Georgian property 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 with anxiety at one of my school bills. I attended Shrewsbury, an independent school and I don’t think there was much room for saving in their budget.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

I started my own publishing business, Haymarket, with colleagues in 1957 and in 1962 we made a disastrous decision.

We acquired a magazine called Topic, that 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 advertising.

You know you’re struggling when the bills are sitting in front of you and you haven’t got the money to pay them.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

There’s no such thing as silly money in my opinion.

What was the best year of your financial life?

It would have to be 1997 when we Tories lost the Election. I came back to my publishing company and my two colleagues, who ran the company in my absence successfully, were sick of our American business which had never made a profit. I decided to look at it before closing it down.

It was quickly apparent to me that we lacked an entrepreneurial sales manager and the person who wanted to buy the business was exactly the person the business needed. So I told my colleagues we weren’t going to sell.

From that moment, we recruited the right people and the American business is now 50 per cent of my publishing company, Haymarket Media Group. A lesson I’ve learned over the years is: show me the problem, show me the person in charge.

What is the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

My golf buggy. I consider it a conspicuous extravagance, but it is a working tool, because my garden, which is open to the public and regarded with some acclaim, spans 70 acres. If someone calls me back to the house, it can be a ten to 15-minute walk from wherever I am.

Driving force: Lord Heseltine bought his golf buggy for for £4,000 in 1992

I bought it for £4,000 in 1992, after I had a heart attack, and I wouldn’t know what to do without it.

Do you save into a pension?

No, Haymarket is my pension. Of course, I also have a pension as an ex-Cabinet Minister. But I haven’t got independent pension savings outside of my company, or even any stock market investments, apart from £500 worth of Marks & Spencer shares, which I bought in 1955.

They are probably worth a bit more now.

Why don’t you invest in the stock market?

I’d rather invest in the business I understand. Haymarket is not a publicly listed company, it is a family business and we intend to keep it that way.

Do you own any property?

Yes, my home, which is a Grade I-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 boring and ordinary house if it hadn’t gone up in value since then.

Inflation is the great creator of apparent wealth. It is a delusion but we’ve all seen our property values dramatically enhanced.

What is the one luxury you treat yourself to?

Jelly babies. I have no idea how much they cost because my children and other people give them to me.

If you come into my office, you’ll see a tray of them.

I don’t wish to reveal any weakness in my capability. But it’s fair to say I am addicted to jelly babies.

Sweet tooth: Lord Heseltine is addicted to jelly babies, which his children and other people give to him

If you were Chancellor, what is the first thing you would do?

I Would reduce the number of local authorities from the present 300 to 60, and I would create much more powerful devolved authorities in the place of the 60 that were left, with directly elected mayors.

Doing that would transform the performance of our country’s economy by entering into bottoms-up partnerships based on the real strengths and opportunities of our very different component parts of the economy.

It would have a huge effect, because in order to build the strategy – which I would help them finance – 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 ordinary punters in the street.

There would be a surge 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 whereas we have a functional division in Whitehall imposing a centralist view on local people.

Do you donate to charity?

Of course – a principal charity I’ve supported is the Oxford Union. I regard serving in the Oxford Union as one of the great privileges of my life. It is this extraordinary stepping stone for young graduates to a wider world of politics.

What is your number one financial priority?

The fortunes of my family depend on the success of Haymarket so it is my number one financial priority.

As I am 90 another huge priority is to enjoy my life. If I have one resentment about the younger generation, it is that they have time. And I’m jealous.