Blairs let home to Hollywood director

A leading film director and his producer partner have rented Tony Blair's Bayswater house.

Michael Caton-Jones, who is currently directing the sequel to Basic Instinct at Pinewood, and his partner Laura Viederman are to move into the ?3million townhouse tomorrow.

But they are to pay substantially less than the ?15,000 a month rent which the Blairs had wanted for the property in Connaught Square.

Instead, sources said they would pay just over ?8,000 a month, meaning that after agents' fees, the Blairs could expect to receive slightly more than ?6,000 a month.

The payments are only half the amount the Blairs are believed to be paying on their mortgage.

The Prime Minister could hardly have asked for more high-profile tenants. Scottish-born Caton-Jones, who has a four-year-old daughter with Ms Viederman, has directed a series of hits, including Scandal - the drama based on the Profumo affair - Memphis Belle, Rob Roy and City By The Sea, which starred Robert Di Niro.

The Blairs bought the Bayswater house in October.

A source told the Standard: "As the months have gone by the rental price has come tumbling down. At around ?8,000 per month, the new tenants are getting a good deal. They probably saw the difficulties the Blairs were in and sensed a bargain."

The source added: "It's an open secret [the Blairs] were getting desperate to rent this house out. Not only has it gone down in value by - but it has been costing them about ?12,000 a month in mortgage payments."

The source, a rental agent who specialises in "high-end" property in the Hyde Park area, said the family were "exactly the sort of tenants" Cherie Blair would have hoped to find.

Mrs Blair is said to have purchased the house after bitterly regretting missing the property boom of the Nineties. The Blairs sold their Islington home before moving into Downing Street, then saw prices rocket.

However, estate agents say the Blairs are unlikely to recoup the ?3.5 million they paid for the Bayswater house in the near future.

And security experts have warned it is far from an ideal home for a former prime minister when the Blairs leave Downing Street because of its location and lack of a large front garden.