A former Adidas boss who bought a £1.3m dream home in the country only to be ordered to partly demolish it because it is two metres "too big" is suing the developer who sold him it for £900,000.

Former managing director of Adidas in Korea, Edward Nixon and wife Sally paid a total of £1.3 million for former farm outbuilding West Barn, in Holdenby Road, East Haddon, Northamptonshire , commissioning developer, Barry Howard, and his company to convert it into a sprawling rural home fit for the 21st century.

Mr Howard - head of Northampton -based house building and development company, Barry Howard Homes - sold the couple the £600,000 parcel of land where West Barn stands and had already built a “shell of a house” on the site.

He and the Nixons then struck a £700,000 deal for the developer to “finalise the construction of the house in accordance with drawings provided to the Nixons”.

The couple say they were told by Mr Howard during a video call in July 2020 that “the house is built and the planners are happy…