Police officers investigating a fire at the Shropshire home of a millionaire and his family – who are all missing – hope to be able to search the gutted building later today.

Osbaston House, an isolated property near Measbrook was set alight in the early hours of Tuesday.

Christopher Foster, 50, his wife Jillian, 49, and daughter Kirstie, 15, have not been seen since. It is not known if they were in the building.

See also: Fears grow for blaze mansion family. 

The emergency services have so far considered the ruins unsafe to enter.

West Mercia Police have said they think the fire was started deliberately.

Supt Gary Higgins said: “This is being treated as arson and, until we can determine whether the family was inside, it will remain arson.”

Mr Foster is listed as the director of Ulva Limited – a thermal insulation manufacturing company in Telford – with Mrs Foster named as company secretary.

The firm went into administration in August last year and a court order was issued in November for the company to be wound up.

A judge later found Mr Foster had spent the previous months stripping Ulva of its assets and transferring them to a new firm he had set up called Ulva International.