Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd given the ‘go-ahead’ to start building £1.4m dream home in Essex

Billie Faiers and husband Greg Shepherd have reportedly been given the ‘go-ahead’ to start building their £1.4million dream home in Essex. 

The couple are said to have received official permission from Brentwood Borough Council to convert their run down 1920s property into a five-bedroom luxury family home, after neighbours deemed the proposals ‘too grand’. 

The news comes after it was reported Billie, 30, and Greg, 33, had to make a number of changes and compromises for neighbours to finally ‘accept’ their plans.

The official notice stated that ‘in pursuance of the powers conferred on them’ the couple would be permitted to carry out specific work.  

According to The Sun, this would allow them to demolish the existing garage to build a two-storey side extension.

Additionally, they would be able to demolish the existing conservatory in order to build a single-storey rear extension.

The luxury mansion would also be complete with an in-and-out driveway along with a single-storey front extension and landscape work. 

MailOnline has contacted Billie and Greg’s representative for comment.  

It comes after The Mummy Diaries stars, who are parents to six-year-old Nelly and Arthur, three, have been battling with neighbours for months over their renovations plans. 

However, after reducing the building by a matter of centimetres, renovations were given the green light.  

Among the changes that were in the revised plan were to make the height of the planned extension 50 centimetres lower and to ensure their home is further from their neighbours.  

In their latest submission, Billie and Greg are quoted as saying: ‘The planning officer confirmed that these now overcome the reasons for refusal on the original application. They therefore recommended that a revised application be submitted.’

MailOnline contacted a representative for Billie for comment at the time. 

In a previous rejection response from the council officer’s report it was written of the potential house: ‘It would be the biggest house on the street and the increase in size from the original home would not be acceptable.’ 

The reports also had concerns about whether the home would be sympathetic to the local area.   

The decision notice stated: ‘The proposed extensions when combined would create a development which is excessive in terms of bulk, size, massing, roof design and siting, resulting in overly dominant additions to the existing dwelling and a substantial building out of character and appearance within its context.

‘It would unacceptably reduce the spatial quality between properties which is characteristic of the area, to the detriment of local visual amenity.’ 

It’s been claimed the previous owners were granted permission to build two houses on the land, yet still, the plans for one large home were initially turned down. 

The neighbours had expressed concern that the property would be too close to theirs and affect their privacy.

The Mummy Diaries star Billie previously admitted that the interior of the sprawling house is ‘old and dated’ and estimated that it will take the pair around a year to completely renovate it.   

The couple revealed that they wanted to start off their journey by showing their followers a look at their current ‘old and dated’ kitchen on their home Instagram ‘homewiththesheps’. 

They said they have planned to change the layout of some of the house, to make way for a kitchen extension which will become a kitchen/dining area/soft area, complete with adjoining play room and utility.

Billie and Greg penned: ‘Hello To all of our new followers❤️ …. Thank you for following us as we begin our new home renovation journey. 

‘I thought I would start off by showing you the kitchen… the Hub of the home to us as a family. 

‘As you can see the kitchen in its current state is very old and dated … we are going to be completely changing this layout as we are extending across the back of the house to create a much bigger space. 

‘Which will become a kitchen / dining area / sofa area (all open plan) with a play room separately at one end and utility room at the other end. 

‘I’ve attached some kitchen design Inspiration images from @jonathanwilliamskitchens to give you an idea of the kitchen style we love ❤️ #newhome #renovation #kitchendesign #kitchendecor #homedecor #inspiration.’ (sic). 

Talking to HELLO!, she said: ‘We got the keys at the end of January but it’s a huge project, a big renovation. We are going in blind because we’ve never done it before and we are starting from scratch.

‘The architect has been in and for what we want to do, it’s going to be at least a year or a year and a half until it is safe for us to live in, so we are going to stay where we are for now.’