Rent or buy?

The Press Association reports:

MPs should no longer be able to claim for their mortgages or employ family members at the taxpayers’ expense, the long-awaited report by the standards watchdog has said…

In future, MPs should only be able to claim for rent or hotel costs…

Now, correct me if I’m wrong but I cannot understand this. A search on RightMove for the cheapest three bedroom accommodation available in Battersea shows a flat for rent at £330 per week.

I’m assuming here that our MPs are frugal types and that they will choose to pair up to share a flat with one spare room so that they can each host a family member or two at the weekend.

The cheapest three bedroom accommodation currently for sale in SW11 that my short search discovered costs £219,950. At present, the taxpayer only funds the interest on an MP’s mortgage payment. Unless interest rates rise above 7.2%, we appear to be about to lose out significantly. (For reference, over the last eight years or so our household has paid less than 5.5% interest on the mortgage.) At present rates of interest (3.9% according to uSwitch.com) the taxpayer would currently be paying just £714.84 in interest on the above flat.

I assume also that there is probably a link between mortgage interest rates and rental costs.

Do we really want to be paying twice as much for our MPs accommodation?

Possibly related:

• The telly box
• DVDs
• Teachers not getting childcare vouchers discussion