MPs exploit another loophole to profit from second homes

By Jason Groves
Last updated at 12:37 AM on 2nd December 2010

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More than 100 MPs have set themselves up as private landlords – while claiming thousands from the taxpayer to rent ‘second homes’ for themselves.
Figures will today show that dozens of MPs are claiming up to £1,450 a month in expenses for a second home, while at the same time renting out properties in London or their constituencies for private gain.
The revelations come as MPs prepare a fresh assault on the new expenses regime which many blame for cutting their income.

Loopholes: Shadow justice minister Chris Bryant and Labour MP Clive Betts are both believed to be involved in taking advantage of the loophole which means they're still able to claim up to £1,400 a month for rent for second properties

The new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s figures will show MPs claimed more than £16million in expenses between the election in May and the end of August, even though they were on holiday for much of the time.
But MPs are expected to line up in the Commons this afternoon to complain the new system is too strict – in an initiative which could mean it is scrapped or stripped of its independence.

 

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Last year, MPs were banned from claiming more than £1,250 a month in mortgage interest. And the practice of claiming for mortgage costs will be banned outright from August 2012, ending one of the most controversial aspects of the expenses crisis.
But figures suggest many MPs have devised a way to keep claiming expenses while hanging on to second homes.
The latest register of MPs’ interests reveals 112 rent out at least one property, usually either in London or their constituency.
In many cases they have previously claimed tens of thousands from the taxpayer to buy and renovate these properties.
The number of MP landlords has soared by 70 per cent in the last 12 months.

'No comment': None of the MPs approached by the Daily Mail responded to questions on their expenses

Although some no longer claim expenses, many appear to see this as a way of continuing to claim second-home expenses when claims for mortgage interest are banned.
More than one in six MPs rents out at least one property. The tactic is within the new rules drawn up by Ipsa.
But by allowing MPs effectively to cross-subsidise their own properties at the taxpayers’ expense, will raise concerns about the degree to which the expenses ‘crackdown’ has changed the culture of entitlement.
Matthew Sinclair, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Expenses are supposed to be there so politicians can do their job, not to help them profit from it.’
In the last year more than a dozen MPs have begun renting out homes previously subsidised by the taxpayer. In several cases the MPs concerned are now believed to be charging the taxpayer to rent another property for themselves.
If they lived in their own homes they could no longer claim second-home expenses. But by renting them out and living elsewhere, they can claim £1,450 a month for rent.
In many cases MPs are thought to be claiming expenses on properties a few miles from homes they already own.
Shadow justice minister Chris Bryant rents out a flat in Bloomsbury, Central London on which he previously claimed up to £1,400 a month.
Tory MP Philip Hollobone is renting out a house in Blackheath, London, where the taxpayer previously funded his mortgage.
Others involved include defence minister Peter Luff and the Labour MPs Clive Betts, Andrew Love and Meg Munn.
None responded to questions on their expenses.

 

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