While we're all distracted by Maltesers and manure, a far more lucrative side to the Great Expenses Scandal has surfaced - the second home allowances racket.As if by magic, your newly-refurbished second home is transformed into your main residence and - hey presto! - another renovation allowance appears. Or if you really want to play the system, the newly renovated place goes on the market and you pocket the proceeds and start all over again.
The extent of this practice goes a long way to explaining the property boom that pushed home ownership beyond the reach of our children. After all, what hope was there of any control of the housing market when so many members of the legislature were de facto property developers?
And if the building society that is adjacent to so many of your party's members and provides much of the funding for all this fiddle dee dee goes badly bust because of crazy speculation, then as Chancellor you rush to bail it out pronto, and ensure all the management involved do not lose a farthing and nor do you nor your friends. Only the taxpayers do.
ReplyDelete"Or if you really want to play the system, the newly renovated place goes on the market and you pocket the proceeds and start all over again."As Baccarat once sang: '...no excuse, no alibi, temptation's won the game...'
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