Look, you don’t need two houses. Well, not to own two houses. If you *want* to, and you’re paid enough then fine – that’s all hunky dory. Out of your *salary* it comes.
But we, the people, shouldn’t be paying for that. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have some accommodation in London, that’s totally appropriate (for MPs who live outside of London). That’s why we should supply MPs with accommodation – not to own, not to furnish with antiques and duckponds and moats at the public’s expense. Just nice, simple apartments.
A block or two of nice, simple apartments in London for the MPs. We the public build it, we stop paying any kind of allowance. They don’t have to pay council tax on it – unless it’s their only property. End of story.
No more figures to fiddle, no more complex rules. You get a flat, if you’ve got a family you get a flat with an adequate number of rooms, it’s furnished with your basic white-goods, and the MP supplies the rest (or maybe gets a single allowance for purchasing beds/sofas/etc – which are donated to charity at the end of the MP’s occupancy).
Et voila. It’s solved.
