ROOF Blog

MPs would be banned from receiving taxpayers’ money to pay the mortgage interest on their second homes, under proposals to be published next week.

Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, has briefed opposition party leaders about his report, which says that in future MPs will have to rent, not buy, their second home if they wish to receive taxpayer support.

Kelly is also to make it more difficult for MPs living in the south-east to claim for a second home, so more of them will have to commute to and from parliament.

It is possible he will rule that MPs living within a 60-minute commuting radius will not be able to claim for a second home, joining the small group of London MPs that are already banned from receiving a second home allowance.

Previously MPs could claim as much as £24,000 a year in mortgage interest payments on their second home, often allowing them to live in homes which were much larger than they required.