ONE of Britain’s richest men has vowed to fight on to ensure his “grand design” home will be built at a Hampshire beauty spot.

D-Day looms for billionaire businessman Jim Ratcliffe, whose vision of building an “environmentally and architecturally outstanding” building at Thorns Beach, near Beulieu, will be put to New Forest National Park planning chiefs tomorrow.

He is hopeful the property will get the go-ahead but revealed he intends to appeal again if the plans are thrown out.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the founder of the Lyndhurst-based chemical firm INEOS wants to build the property over an existing building and redevelop the site.

The 61-year-old tycoon launched another bid to build the mansion, two years after his previous proposal was thrown out.

It was turned down by the National Park Authority (NPA) in 2012, and was rejected on appeal by a Government-appointed planning inspector.

Mr Ratcliff submitted a revised scheme aiming to overcome the objections earlier this year.

Now Mr Ratcliffe has to persuade the committee that the house is architecturally outstanding, exceptionally eco-friendly and sensitive to the local area.

The new home has been designed by Charles Morris, who designed The Orchard Room and The Chapel at Highgrove and the nearby Limewood Hotel, and has been applied for under paragraph 55 of the National Planning Framework, which grants permission to individual houses if they are “truly outstanding” and remain “sensitive to the local area”.

But as revealed this week, a report to the NPA’s planning and development control committee says Mr Ratcliffe has merely “tinkered” with the original proposal.

And in a letter of objection, the New Forest Association, says “it remains miles away from achieving the criteria set out by the inspector at the appeal”.

In a rare interview with the Daily Echo, Mr Ratcliffe said: “I am hopeful – at the end of the day I don’t know which way it will go.

“We have done everything. Architecturally it is outstanding, which is what it has to be to meet section 55.

“What I believe is that you will get a very creative and pleasing design, rather than what we tend to do a lot in the UK and build something mock Georgian. If it gets rejected we will go to appeal and we will argue that we have done what we had to do from the first time around.”

It comes a year after INEOS’s Grangemouth refinery was at the centre of an industrial dispute when the firm announced the petrochemical works would close due to losses.

A survival plan was put forward requiring its employees to accept worse payment terms, which was rejected.

Further negotiations were carried out and the unions later accepted a survival plan, which enabled the plant to stay open.

Mr Ratcliffe remained tight-lipped over the dispute but said INEOS is in “very good shape”.

He added: “It will be the first zero carbon emissions house in the New Forest, which is exceptional.

“I want this new home to have a genuinely positive impact on the area. It’s rare that the opportunity comes along to build something that will be world class and stand the test of time. I hope that I will be allowed to seize this opportunity and make this vision come true.”