Council grants Beckhams permission to transform barn into offices at £6 million home near Chipping Norton

The celebrity couple bought the Grade-II listed country house at Maplewood Barn, near Great Tew, for £6,150,000 in 2016.

This development to turn one of the large outbuilding's roof spaces into offices is the latest upgrade at the family's Cotswold home.

The application – approved by West Oxfordshire District Council – also includes the building of a new bathroom, the installation of skylights, and a new external wooden staircase.

Previously used as a space to store garden equipment, the couple now has three years to begin working on the conversion to offices.

The pair had previously got into hot water with neighbours over developments, including a now-withdrawn application to build a second access road into their home.

They have also recently been granted planning permission to construct a kitchen garden and glasshouse so that they could grow their own fruit and vegetables.

One neighbour who lodged a complaint against this application said: "Many people locally indicated to West Oxfordshire Council that the increase in the residential curtilage of this property will see an ever-increasing number of buildings, and to date we have all been proved right."

Some within Great Tew and the surrounding villages have accused the former footballer and pop star of bringing suburbia to the countryside with their numerous development projects at the property.

The family’s Maplewood Barn property sits just over a mile from the popular members club and hotel Soho Farmhouse and around 7 miles from Chipping Norton.