- guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 October 2009 22.00 BST
The MPs' expenses row is back on the boil, with more jaw-dropping stories of outlandish claims, of demands for reimbursement and apology. While legislators anxiously open their letters from the auditor, Sir Thomas Legg, to learn his judgment of their claims, we have made meagre progress towards defining what we think should be allowable. That task will fall to Sir Christopher Kelly, who later this year will need to summon up all the coolness of a former mandarin in proposing a solution through his committee on standards in public life. In particular he will have to provide an acceptable answer to a simple question: what is appropriate compensation for an MP for the expense of running two homes?
Simple, but tough to answer, because in the public mind almost any claim seems unjustified. If it is for a bath plug it is trivial and money-grubbing; if for scatter cushions in the living room it is frivolous; if for a 30-inch television, excessive. There is certainly an argument for covering the basic cost of a second home as part of an employment package for someone whose job requires them to run one. But taxpayers are bound to find it difficult – especially when in a hostile mood – to agree on what they mean by "basic".
Fortunately, there already exists a strong piece of evidence about what the general public considers the minimum cost of running a home. Last year, in the largest ever piece of academic research of its kind, a team from Loughborough and York universities spent over 100 hours talking to groups of ordinary people in great detail about what should be in a family budget to produce a minimum acceptable standard of living for Britain today.
This standard was not designed for MPs, but for people on low incomes: it sets a threshold of decency for society as a whole. But this evidence might now help bring some of our legislators down to earth – especially those protesting that they had no choice but to spend money cleaning the swimming pool because otherwise it would become a public health hazard.
According to this research, a television is a necessity not a luxury, but a 21-inch flatscreen for £89.99 will do. Throw in the cost of a digibox and a DVD player, replace these things every five years, and the weekly cost of your media system comes to just 65p.
Not all necessities defined by this method are "bog standard". The groups taking part in the research said buying the cheapest carpets is a false economy because they wear out faster. Nevertheless, the weekly cost of carpeting a one-bedroom flat came to just £1.75.
In a list of nearly 100 household items required to equip this flat, nearly three-quarters cost less than 10p a week to own, based on their price and how often they need replacing (including a bath mat at just 1p a week). Together all the household goods cost only £18 a week, and could be bought with a one-off 2.5% rise in an MP's salary.
Other items, such as the rent or mortgage, would cost more, but again a minimum could be pinned down. Private tenants on low incomes now get housing benefit as an allowance based on prevailing rent levels in the area where they live. Why not do the same for MPs: pay them the going rate for renting a one-bedroom flat in their area, with anything more coming out of their own pockets.
This line of argument might seem harsh, by imposing a basic living standard on a group of people who might otherwise be doing well-paying jobs. But an MP already earns over 2.6 times as much as the average wage of a full-time worker, whose taxes pay his or her salary. The public may in addition be willing to pay MPs' expenses for the minimum cost of meeting work commitments, but not help to finance a high standard of living.
This kind of approach could not just provide a fair and easy to understand settlement, but start to bridge the perceived gap between MPs' lifestyles and those of their constituents struggling through the recession. Members of parliament are not the only elites who evade that struggle, but as an expression of social solidarity it would be a start.