How much does your MP cost you?

Tim has always endeavoured to make the workings and cost of his office, well before the recent furore over MPs' expenses, as transparent as possible.That is why for several years he has made more detailed declarations about his allowances in a user friendly way on this website and in his Annual Report.In addition from 2008 Conservative MPs published further details of their allowances on the Conservative Party website.He is always happy to respond to further questions on this in the interests of Parliamentary transparency and accountability to his constituents and hopes that it will help people see exactly what taxpayers are paying MPs to do and not instantly swallow the mischief making of the tabloid headlines.

I hope the information below is helpful and as always, I am happy to respond to any more detailed questions.

The public is understandably outraged about the recent revelations about the way the MPs expenses system works or clearly doesn't work. The system has been brought into disrepute by the excesses of a few, not helped by the broad and lax criteria under which allowances are granted and the fact that uniquely the job of an MP requires us to operate from three different work places - Westminster, the constituency office and our homes. It is vital that the system is now urgently reformed to start to restore confidence in the whole political process and in the important jobs that our constituents sent us to Parliament to do.I hope therefore that the new arrangements outlined in the report by Sir Christopher Kelly are taken up as soon as possible so that we can move on and put this whole sorry saga behind us.

Every MP's circumstance is different and each should be accountable. For my part I have always supported any moves to make the workings of MPs more transparent and accountable which is why I have published fuller details of my expenses on my website voluntarily for some years well before the recent row blew up, and have always been happy to answer any questions from my constituents, though few have raised it. When the revelations about the Parliamentary expenses system first hit the headlines in May 2009 Tim was keen to be available to constituents to respond to any questions or concerns head-on.Subsequently, with West Worthing Peter Bottomley he held a special street surgery in Worthing town centre for any constituents to come along and ask questions on any aspects of MPs allowances, locally or generally.That challenge was taken up by scores of people and for two and a half hours Tim and Peter took on all comers.For those unable to come to the town centre a further public meeting was held a few weeks later at Davison's school organised and chaired by the Worthing Herald, though the attendance was disappointing. Subsequently, Tim has been happy to answer any outstanding queries as ever.

Along with all other MPs, Tim's expenses stretching back five years have been the subject of a full audit by the review body set up under Sir Thomas Legg which has made various recommendations about refunding various claims made.In addition the Conservative Party set up a more rigorous review of every Conservative MP's claims and made its own recommendations.Tim was found not to have made any unjustified claims over this period although there had been an overpayment for mortgage interest back in the year 2006/07 and the wrong bill submitted for boiler maintenance last year.Both of these matters have now been settled.Since becoming an MP in 1997 I had maintained the same two properties - a house in West Sussex just outside my constituency and a flat in Westminster in walking distance from the House of Commons where I usually stay during the week. Both these properties were purchased without any public funds. As anyone can see from my website my normal working week averages over 70 hours when Parliament is sitting. That includes several days a week when I am in my Commons office by 7.30 in the morning and not leaving until after 11pm which makes commuting wholly impractical, much as I would like to be able to get home more often!

My time is therefore split between Westminster and Sussex and up to October 2009, I had chosen to claim the Additional Costs Allowance on my Sussex home, though I have significant mortgages on both properties.I have claimed for running costs on that one property which include mortgage interest, utility bills, council tax and insurance. I have never charged any capital goods, gardening, cleaning, mock beam installation or moat clearance or the like! I am more than happy to justify any of these expenses to my constituents which fully comply with the rules and which more importantly comply with the spirit of Parliamentary expenses being necessary to enable me to get on with my job in more than one place of work, working unsociable hours and being accountable to my constituents.

Following discussions over reform to the allowance system and in particular concerning the Additional Costs Allowance (now renamed the Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure) which compensates Members for the costs associated with living away from home, Tim decided to dispose of his London flat in October 2009. In future he will be claiming for the cost of living in London and no claims will be made in connection with his home in Sussex.From October 18th he has been claiming for the cost of hotels in central London and is considerably more expensive than the mortgage interest previously claimed.From January 2010 Tim has rented a small flat in walking distance from the House of Commons and will claim PAAE against the cost of this.

A breakdown of Tim's expenses from July 2009 is available from the Conservative Party's website; www.conservatives.com/People/Members_of_Parliament.aspx.

A summary of Tim's income and expenses from 2007/08 is given below.So far, only the figures for the Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure have been published for 2008/09 where Tim's total was £22,063 compared with £23,083 in 2007/08.

In total Tim claimed £145,974 in 2007/08, an increase of 4% on the figure of £140,352 in 2006/07, to carry out his duties as an MP and run his office which typically deals with over 100 letters and a similar number of emails and telephone calls every working day. Comparisons to other MPs in the table below show that Tim was 337^th most expensive out of 645 MPs (i.e. cost less than most) despite the fact that he has additional responsibilities and costs as the Shadow Minister for Children and Young people.

For more details see www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tim_loughton

The Legg review has gone through all claims made by every MP stretching back to 2003. Despite the fact that receipts for most claims are provided and these should be checked by the Fees Office in all cases a number of errors have been uncovered.

The majority of MPs have therefore been asked to provide further evidence of claims and if necessary to pay back any anomalies or refund monies paid for claims which have retrospectively been found to be unjustified.

Tim was asked to provide back copies of mortgage interest payments where he has claimed for mortgage interest costs on his second dwelling as he is entitled to do. This is despite the fact that Tim has submitted annual statements to the Fees Office each year as requested and any discrepancies should have been taken up in the year they occurred. Members have also been able to appeal against any claims they regard as unreasonable. Tim has decided not to appeal and has agreed to 2 refunds relating to overpayments in past years for claims which were for allowed expenditure but where the Fees Office wrongly calculated the actual amounts.

As a result Tim has repaid £1070.94 for a mortgage overpayment in the year 2006/07 and a balancing amount of £107.94 in respect of a boiler maintenance bill in 2008/09 where one bill was paid twice and a second bill was not paid at all. These payments have been accepted in full and the Legg investigations are closed as regards Tim’s financial affairs.

 

Salary

Like most MPs Tim received a basic salary of £63,291 (increased to £64,766 in April 2009) in 2008/2009. Tim does not qualify for any other Parliamentary salary payments.

For information, the salary of an MP has risen by an average of 3.4% pa since Tim first became an MP in 1997, as follows:

1 April 1997          £43,860

1 April 1998         £45,066

1 April 1999         £47,008

1 April 2000         £48,371

1 April 2001         £49,822

20 June 2001       £51,822

1 April 2002         £55,118

1 April 2003         £56,358

1 April 2004         £57,485

1 April 2005         £59,095

1 April 2006         £59,686

1 Nov 2006           £60,277

1 Apr 2007            £61,181

1 Nov 2007           £61,820

1 Apr 2008           £63,291

                                                   1 April 2009          £64,766

Despite being a Shadow Minister on the Conservative Front Bench Tim receives no additional salary. The only MPs who receive more than the basic MPs salary are Government ministers, the Leader of the Opposition, senior opposition whips and chairmen of Parliamentary Committees. There are no differential payments for MPs representing parts of the country with a higher cost of living like the South East. There are also no additional employment benefits like private health insurance, gym membership etc.

All MPs qualify for a final salary pension scheme though over the last five years the individual contribution payable by members has almost doubled from 6% to around 11% of salary.

Additional costs allowance

In recognition of the fact that MPs have to live in two places at once to attend Parliament in Westminster during the week and to attend to duties in their constituencies, MPs could claim up to £24,006 in 2008/09 for the cost of a second property. This can be used for rent/mortgage interest, utility bills, security bills etc.

The majority of the allowance goes on mortgage interest payments followed by energy and utility bills, security, insurance and general repairs/maintenance. Tim has not used this allowance for buying any capital items for his home (the ‘infamous’ John Lewis list of kitchens, TVs etc!) The House of Commons Fees Office closely monitors these and all other claims, for which there are strict rules and Tim produces receipts.As from 2009, the terms of the ACA were changed so that only rent or hotel costs, utility bills, service charges, insurance and mortgage interest costs could be claimed although The Kelly Review is recommending that interest mortgage payments should nolonger qualify.

Incidental Expenses Provision and Staffing Allowance

Tim maintains an office at the House of Commons and in the constituency at Haverfield House in Worthing. To cover the costs of running these offices MPs qualify for an annual staffing allowance of £90,505 and incidental expenses provision allowance of £21,339 in 2007/08. Parts of these allowances are interchangeable which is why the official figures can appear to be outside these limits.

Taken together in 2007/08 Tim spent a total of £110,031 to run his offices. None of this money actually goes to Tim directly and he has never had any family members working for him and receiving any benefit.

Of this total over 84% goes on staff salaries, including basic pay and national insurance costs. Tim employs:

- A full time personal assistant at Westminster called Louise Bradley, mostly dealing with constituency correspondence and diary engagements

- A full time researcher at Westminster called Alex Burghart, helping Tim with his House of Commons work and front bench duties.

- A part time researcher at Westminster called Justine Kent, helping with his role as Shadow Minister for Children

- A part time secretary called Fiona Chadwick, working from home mostly handling surgery case work.

- A contribution to the secretarial support in the Worthing office dealing directly with constituents. This is included in the monthly payment Tim makes to Haverfield House of £640 towards the cost of renting an office there, staffing and provision of other office services. This amount is decided by agreement with the Fees Office and is substantially cheaper than the cost of maintaining a separate staffed office in the constituency.

 

Without going into every detail of the cost of every paper clip, the major additional items of expenditure for last year were:

* Producing Annual Report (£1,759 and delivered free by volunteers)

* Cost of computer support contract

* Room hire for surgeries and public meetings

* Subscription to Parliamentary Resources Unit for research support for constituent     correspondence etc (£3,877)

* New computer printer

* Cost of pager and Parliamentary mobile phone

* General stationery and office supplies

As from April 2007 MPs have an additional £10,000 communications allowance for the cost of literature sent to constituents. Tim, along with other Conservative MPs voted against this allowance as he believes that current budgets should be sufficient. In future costs for the Annual Report for example will automatically be debited to the Communication Allowance but Tim will seek to reduce the cost of his IEP accordingly.

 

Travel

MPs can claim the cost of travel to and from Parliament and also to and from and within their constituencies. In addition front benchers can claim the cost of travel to projects around the country relevant to their brief (in Tim's case children and young people). MPs can also claim expenses of travel to other EU capitals on Parliamentary business. Tim has only claimed for European trips on 2 occasions in his 11 years in Parliament.

In total Tim claimed £8,313 on travel in 2007/08 which was a reduction on the £10,034 in 2006/07. Tim usually travels to Westminster by train so this is made up of train travel and car mileage remunerated at the standard Inland Revenue rate of 40p per mile.

 

 

Miscellaneous

The MPs expenses also include a figure of £1,148 for centrally provided computer equipment by the House of Commons IT department and a total of £1084 for House of Commons stationery and postage 

 

 

Type	2007/08 (ranking out of 645)	2006/07 (ranking out of 645)	2005/06	2004/05 (ranking out of 659)	2003/04 (ranking out of 658)	2002/03 (ranking out of 657)	2001/02 (ranking out of 657)
Additional Costs Allowance	£23,083 (joint 1st)	£22,110 (joint 1st)	£21,634	£20,902 (joint 1st)	£20,282 (joint 206th)	£19,700 (joint 268th)	£15,234 (328th)
London Supplement	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Incidental Expenses Provision	£17,618 (364th)	£27,786 (46th)	£18,043	£15,583 (468th)	£18,793 (joint 228th)	£17,456 (451st)	£15,840 (319th)
Staffing Allowance	£92,413 (112th)	£77,946 (503rd)	£81,167	£76,645 (109th)	£70,328 (172nd)	£68,350 (142nd)	£49,540 (199th)
Communications Allowance	£1,759 (563rd)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Members' Travel	£8,012 (joint 296th)*	£10,034 (212th)**	£6,407	£9,980 (338th)	£11,775 (257th)	£10,557 (304th)	£8,098 (316th)
Members' Staff Travel	£21 (joint 425th)	£77 (392nd)	£60	£27 (joint 455th)	£10 (481st)	£0	£0
Members' Spouse Travel	£262 (joint 276th)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Members' Family Travel	£19 (112th)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Centrally Purchased Stationery	£556 (459th)	£573 (joint 490th)	£618	£576 (461st)	£346 (583rd)	£1,346 (joint 204th)	£653 (joint 488th)
Stationery: Associated Postage Costs	£1,084 (553rd)	£820 (601st)	£1,455	£2,144 (384th)	£1,395 (506th)	N/A	N/A
Centrally Provided Computer Equipment	£1,148 (joint 419th)	£1,006 (joint 416th)	£0	£1,928 (256th)	£1,928 (251st)	£1,928 (245th)	£1,928 (232nd)
Other Costs	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0	£0
Total	£145,975 (337th)	£140,352 (joint 277th)	£129,384	£127,785 (234th)	£124,857 (207th)