Comments on: Dear David Clelland MP – a few questions on behalf of the folk in Lobley Hill

By: James

James — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:16:39 +0000

I have been trawling through the published expense claims on the Parliament Website with a particular interest in the Council Tax claims. Under Council Tax rules only one main home is allowed.A second property must be given a discount of between 50% and 10% by the relavent authority although most give the minimum 10%.
You would therefore assume that as 571 MPs claim an Additional Cost Allowance ACA, many for a property rather than hotel bills, that they would be entitled to a ‘second home’ CT discount of 10%. Indeed many MPs including David Cameron,Brian Jenkins and Philip Davies do, and it is shown on their bills. However, there are quite a number (in the 2007/08 year-latest available expenses) who claim a 25% single occupant discount (which is also shown on their bills) and David Clelland is one of them. As I stated, for Council Tax purposes you can only have one ‘main’ home, so these MPs have satisfied the relevant Councils that the home, that the taxpayer pays all the bills for, is their main home as they spend the most time there and thus qualify for the single occupancy discount of 25%. Why bother going to all the trouble of ensuring this is your ‘main’ home when, regardless of how much the Council Tax bill is, the taxpayer always foots the bill? I can only logically deduce that they are using the system as Ken Clarke stated in a Telegraph interview. With the MP’s second home now his ‘main’ home, his partner/spouse is then, for council tax purposes, the only qualifying adult in the family home (usually in the constituency) and therefore also qualifies for the 25% single occupancy discount.So the MP and their spouse/partner qualifies for high discounts on both properties. Something which you or I would not be able to do. Perhaps you could ask David Clelland if this is the reason he goes to the trouble of making sure his ‘second’home is his ‘main’ home.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:08:03 +0000

I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the Telegraph or the tabloids. yes some MP’s have done serious fiddles, but I don’t believe Mr Clelland has, my understanding of the London flat situation is, his now wife put a large amount of inherritence into the London flat as a deposit, she then decided she wanted to invest elsewhere and quite rightly wanted her money back, during the time her money was tied up in the property the property market was booming and increased the price of the flat, thereofore she was entitled to her share plus the profit it had made. Mr Clelland in my eyes has done nothing wrong. In my opinion he works very hard for his constituents and we all should stand by him and ignore the rags that are trying to rubbish his good name. People need to realise that Mr Clelland is human and will be affected by these ridiculous allergations. Mr Clelland has my full support now and always!

By: george clark

george clark — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:42:12 +0000

clellandd@parliament.uk
davidclellandmp@aol.com

By: KrisBelucci

KrisBelucci — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:27:22 +0000

Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!