Mps Milk Millions Even When They Quit By Selling Second Homes Funded By You

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...funded-you.html

MPs are in line for a multi-million pound windfall by selling taxpayer-funded second homes when they leave the Commons, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Many of those who have already decided to retire at the next election will pocket huge sums in pure profit.

Long serving MPs will have bought their properties during the early 1990s and have ridden the boom which sent the average price of a Westminster flat from £171,000 in 1997 to £543,000 last year.

During that period, taxpayers will have forked out up to £24,000 a year to help them buy and kit out their homes.

MPs who lose their seats - the majority of them likely to be Labour - will also benefit from the golden goodbye.

A Daily Mail survey of 60 MPs due to stand down at the next election found that at least 17 own homes in London and have claimed the second home allowance every year.

This small group alone stands to gain £4,487,000, an average of £263,941 each. With 485 MPs claiming second homes allowance, the total Commons pot of gold could be worth a breathtaking £128million.

Beneficiaries at the next election could include three Labour MPs from Wolverhampton who have claimed £243,000 of taxpayers' money in seven years on a flat they bought together in 2001 for £255,000.

One, Ken Purchase, will leave the Commons after receiving more than £104,000 in second-homes allowance. He, Rob Marris and Dennis Turner, now a peer, stand to make a profit of £65,000 each.

The revelations will add to public disgust at the expenses gravy train which has helped many MPs build lucrative property portfolios.

Someone mentioned this the other day that the press had failed to pick up on the fact MP's have been riding the property boom for profit.

Anyone think HPI was allowed to go uncheck for personal gain? Our MP's wouldn't be that stupid would they....

[Cogs]

Someone mentioned this the other day that the press had failed to pick up on the fact MP's have been riding the property boom for profit.

Anyone think HPI was allowed to go uncheck for personal gain? Our MP's wouldn't be that stupid would they....

As far as I can tell they still seem to be steadfastly refusing to even consider it, despite having stories about both topics in their papers at the same time.

[Saberu]

Look's like Rupert Murdoch's friends want the Conservatives to get in next election by a vast majority to keep Labour out a long time, allowing the Tories to be equally bad if not worse as ofcourse who would want Labour back?

Then eventually the Tories will be SO bad that we will ask for Labour back, and the game will begin anew.

It's a game.

[nixy]

Look's like Rupert Murdoch's friends want the Conservatives to get in next election by a vast majority to keep Labour out a long time, allowing the Tories to be equally bad if not worse as ofcourse who would want Labour back?

Then eventually the Tories will be SO bad that we will ask for Labour back, and the game will begin anew.

It's a game.

I think I would vote for a 'sleaze' party that would (could?) commit to eliminate banking fraud.

[grumpy-old-man-returns]

Look's like Rupert Murdoch's friends want the Conservatives to get in next election by a vast majority to keep Labour out a long time, allowing the Tories to be equally bad if not worse as ofcourse who would want Labour back?

Then eventually the Tories will be SO bad that we will ask for Labour back, and the game will begin anew.

It's a game.

yep, wash, rinse & repeat.

that's why I don't bother voting.

Meet new boss, same as old boss.

[olliegog]

yep, wash, rinse & repeat.

that's why I don't bother voting.

Meet new boss, same as old boss.

we get the government we deserve and by not voting - that achieves absolutely nothing. Vote for another party and break the stranglehold of the two main parties - people all over the world and throughout history have fought for the right to vote and just saying I won't vote because they are all the same is defeatist and acheives nothing.

On the subject of the topic - one would assume they would have to pay CGT on this 'profit' or is that another loophole in this whole mess. I have a suspicion that it was very much in their own interests to inflate the HPI bubble - lots could have been done in the past to halt it via removal of tax breaks etc and no-one acted. If a few intelligent people on web sites and in the media could see it was a bubble that needed to be deflated why did noone in Government do anything about it - vested interest of course :angry:

rant over

[bungy]

would you have done anything about house price inflation if you were flipping between a handful of houses, renovating them for free and getting to keep the profit without paying CGT?

not voting achieves nothing though, vote for some-one else if you have a problem with your current MP. By not voting all that happens is the same lot get in over and over.

if you feel strongly enough, get behind an independant MP that will answer directly to his/her constituents instead of a party leader.

[olliegog]

would you have done anything about house price inflation if you were flipping between a handful of houses, renovating them for free and getting to keep the profit without paying CGT?

not voting achieves nothing though, vote for some-one else if you have a problem with your current MP. By not voting all that happens is the same lot get in over and over.

if you feel strongly enough, get behind an independant MP that will answer directly to his/her constituents instead of a party leader.

+1

precisely the point I was trying to make. I understand why they did nothing about it and it explains a lot of their inaction and active promotion of HPI. I really should not have expected them 'to do the right thing'.

Edited May 11, 2009 by olliegog

[THE BALD MAN]

would you have done anything about house price inflation if you were flipping between a handful of houses, renovating them for free and getting to keep the profit without paying CGT?

not voting achieves nothing though, vote for some-one else if you have a problem with your current MP. By not voting all that happens is the same lot get in over and over.

if you feel strongly enough, get behind an independant MP that will answer directly to his/her constituents instead of a party leader.

MPs should repay these expenses or alternatively they should resign without compensation or pension. I feel a petition coming on!!! Alternatively they should be taxed in the same way as the rest of us are.