[Shasown]

MPs will not be allowed to buy taxpayer funded second homes under new expenses rules to start after the election.

Those with constituencies at least 20 miles or 60 minutes from Westminster will be able to claim up to £1,450 a month - equivalent to a one bed flat.

Expenses chief Sir Ian Kennedy said all claims would require receipts. Payoffs to retiring MPs will be stopped but MPs will be able to employ one relative.

He said the "tough" rules were a "clear break" with the old discredited system.

Sir Ian, head of the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, has been considering proposals drawn up after a seven-month inquiry last year.

Profits recouped

He rejected its proposal that MPs should not be allowed to claim to employ any relatives - he said they could offer "value for money" as long as there were safeguards in place.

These included a limit of one relative - which also extended to civil partnerships, live-in co-habitees and financial partners - an agreed contract and pay range and "no bonuses".

On accommodation, he said his proposals would reduce maximum annual accommodation and office claims from £56,915 to £40,957 for MPs with seats outside London and from £40,192 to £26,915 for the rest.

He said there would be "no second homes under the new rules" for MPs - instead they would be able to rent accommodation up to the value of a one-bedroom flat.

Only those with constituencies at least 20 miles outside Westminster - or a 60-minute commute from Parliament - would be able to do so, which would stop 128 MPs from claiming for a second home at all.

'Cost effective'

MPs who already own taxpayer-funded second homes will be able to keep claiming until August 2012 - a shorter timescale than the five years Sir Christopher had recommended - but Sir Ian said profits would be "recouped".

"It's not our job to punish MPs for past wrongdoings, it's our job to publish new rules that give the public value for money and allow MPs to do their jobs," he said.

MPs with children aged under five, single parents with children under 21 and those caring for disabled children will get extra support, Sir Ian said.

But he said they were still looking at "cost-effective" ways of finding rental accommodation - Sir Christopher Kelly had said a commercial rental agency should be used to find MPs' flat.

Cleaning and gardening claims would no longer be allowed, nor would claims for accountants to work out MPs' tax - something several MPs were criticised for.

Claims for the "daily commute" would not be allowed, Sir Ian said, although MPs would be reimbursed for trips between Westminster and their constituencies.

MPs could claim for public transport costs at the "any time standard open rate" but claims for "significantly fewer" journeys by MPs' families would be allowed.

The £25-a-night "subsistence allowance" MPs have been able to claim without receipts would end. Instead MPs will be able to claim £15 for an evening meal, when the House sits after 7.30pm, if they produce a receipt.

A budget for up to three-and-a-half full time staff would be allowed and offices rented from parties must be independently valued, he said.

He said Ipsa would pay out for two months "winding up" costs when MPs' leave Parliament but would not give MPs a "resettlement allowance" - the one-off payment of up to £64,000 retiring MPs can currently claim, dubbed a "golden goodbye".

Sir Ian said that was not an expenses matter and should be considered as part of any future remuneration package.

"Should we be given responsibility for MPs' pay, we will consider the matter afresh but no-one currently standing for Parliament should make any assumptions about its availability in the future," Sir Ian said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8592174.stm



Ah poor dears, looks like the gravy train is being slowed down a little.