He has several sumptuous villas dotted around Italy, not to mention homes in Bermuda and the Caribbean. Yet nothing can curb the hunger of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian billionaire prime minister, for more living space.

His latest expansion project is to double the size of Villa San Martino, his already palatial residence at Arcore, outside Milan, for which planning permission was granted with controversial alacrity by a local administration dominated by his political party. This has prompted murmurings in parliament about abuses of power. An opposition senator has called for an investigation.

It is not as if the majestic three-storey villa, bought by Berlusconi in 1974, was lacking in leg room. Far from it. With an imposing tree-lined drive, it is an exquisitely proportioned 50-acre estate with enormous stables and other outbuildings.

In one corner Berlusconi, 71, has already built a pink marble mausoleum for himself, his family and faithful friends.

Now, apparently, he wants to transform several old agricultural buildings into “satellite villas” to accommodate visiting children and grandchildren.

According to Fausto Perego, deputy mayor of Arcore in the previous centre-left council, the prime minister first applied for a much smaller extension: he wanted a gallery for his collection of paintings and a “museum” for his Mondadori publishing house.

The original scheme would have included “relinquishing part of the property”, said Perego, so that it could be used for the creation of a new town square and a library.

After Berlusconi’s party took power in Arcore, however, the size of the extension was tripled. In place of land the local authority will be paid £1.4m in compensation and taxes. Sources in the local council were quoted in La Stampa as saying that Berlusconi was prepared to increase his contribution by funding an old people’s home.

“We will use this money for the good of all the citizens of Arcore,” said Marco Rocchini, the new mayor. “There has been criticism of the speed with which we approved it, but everything was in order. What else could we do?”

It was by no means the first time that Berlusconi has raised eyebrows - and tempers - by running rings around urban planners. Four years ago he was accused of building without planning permission onto his Sardinian holiday hideaway, where he has entertained friends such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Assisted by a powerful platoon of lawyers, several of whom are also MPs and government officials, he rebuffed all attempts at examining embellishments such as a mock Greek amphitheatre, small private harbour and an underground landing stage on the basis that they were protected by an official secrecy decree issued by his government.

Besides the villa at Arcore and his Sardinian complex, Berlusconi has at least eight other properties, including a Tuscan castle and a villa by Lake Como.

The row over the 18th-century Villa San Martino erupted days after the government passed a law bestowing immunity from prosecution on Berlusconi and three other leaders.

Senator Roberto Della Seta, of the opposition Democratic party, has demanded in parliament that the government should check the circumstances under which permission was given to expand the villa.

The previous inhabitant was Count Camillo Casati, who shot dead his wife and her lover in 1970 before killing himself. The property was inherited by his 19-year-old daughter, who went to live in South America after leaving the sale of the property in the hands of Cesare Previti, her lawyer.

Previti was a close friend of Berlusconi who, in those days, was merely a successful property developer. In the deal that he orchestrated, Berlusconi bought the villa in exchange for shares in a company worth £100,000. Berlusconi’s opponents later cried foul, claiming that he had paid far less than the villa was worth.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating