Clive Betts had farm estate when he fought for ‘hardship’ expenses
Dominic Kennedy and Rebecca O’Connor
The man behind the huge rise in MPs’ housing expenses used his allowance to help to pay for a country estate. When Clive Betts fought for a big increase in MPs’ entitlements on the ground of “hardship” he had recently bought a converted farm property with a croquet lawn, it has emerged.
An investigation by The Times shows:
• Mr Betts “flipped” his designated second home to Yorkshire before buying a rural retreat there. He then flipped back to London before taking out larger mortgages on his flat in a block in Westminster;
• he has twice taken out bigger mortgages against his flat, where he charges some of the interest to Commons expenses;
• he bills the £5,000-a-year service charge, including residents’ private swimming pool, sauna, gym and 24-hour porter, to the taxpayer.
Shortly after Tony Blair won his second landslide, Mr Betts called for a big increase in the MPs’ housing allowance. Robin Cook, who was Leader of the Commons, tried to persuade MPs in July 2001 to refer their allowances to an independent review body.
But Mr Betts told the House: “Delay could cause considerable problems for many honourable members.” He referred to the urgent plight of newly elected members struggling to find somewhere to rent in the capital.
He heavily defeated the Government with an amendment to increase housing allowances by 42 per cent. They leapt from a maximum of £13,322 a year to £19,469 a year. The current figure is £23,083. :shock:
Mr Betts reassured MPs that the full sum would be paid only on the basis of need. However, he has claimed every penny he could for the past six years — except for once, when he underclaimed by £2.
In 1997 Mr Betts flipped his second home from Westminster to Sheffield when he became a Government Whip and was required by rules to have his main residence in London.
He took advantage of the change to upgrade his constituency home, selling a house in a former mining village for £88,000 and trading up to a secluded farm on the Derbyshire borders.
The property was advertised as “a small country estate with 4.7 acres which would particularly suit someone who may enjoy equestrian pursuits or wishes to keep a few farm animals”. There was a croquet lawn, tennis courts and ornamental pond.
Agnes “Jo” Simm, Mr Betts’s constituent, then aged 79, wanted £450,000 for the property. Mr Betts co-ordinated the sale in May 1999: two friends bought the cottages on the estate for £100,000 and he agreed to pay £250,000 for the remainder.
This conveniently meant that he avoided the effect of Mr Brown’s Budget for “a fairer society” which had just increased stamp duty by 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent on properties above £250,000 to help schools and hospitals. Stamp duty on properties up to £250,000 remained at 1 per cent.
Even with a mortgage, Mr Betts was unable to afford the price, so he underpaid Mrs Simm by £55,000 and gave her a second charge on the property. When he sold a coach house on the estate for £110,000, he repaid her.
Constituents say that the pond is overgrown and the croquet hoops have gone. Mr Betts said: “There is no tennis court.”
On his website he describes his current second home, for which he now claims expenses, as “a small, 1-bedroom flat, within walking distance of the Houses of Parliament”.
When, as a newly elected Sheffield Labour MP, he bought it for £132,000 in 1993, the fifth-floor flat was being marketed to property speculators in the Far East.
He redesignated it as his second home for expenses purposes in 2003, citing a change of Commons rules. At that time, he says, the mortgage, which he had been funding privately, stood at £190,000.
Mr Betts says that he borrowed £20,000 extra in 2005 because of problems at the flat, but a deal meant that he paid less interest and so reduced his claims. In 2007 he remortgaged, again for repairs and refurbishment.
The Land Registry says that mortgage was £235,000, indicating that he has borrowed £45,000 extra since flipping to the London flat.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 695100.ece
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