CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has become a landlord after moving out of her London home to Downing Street.
According to Reeves’ entry in the parliamentary register of MPs’ financial interests, the Chancellor stands to make more than £10,000 per year from renting out her house in London, the point at which MPs must declare rental income.
It comes as she moves into Downing Street to take up the traditional grace-and-favour residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in No 11, next door to the Prime Minister.
Reeves, the MP for Leeds West and Pudsey, said in the register that the rental income is paid jointly to her and her husband Nick Joicey, a high-ranking civil servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Since her election to Parliament in 2010, Reeves has claimed expenses for accommodation in her West Yorkshire constituency.
In the last full calendar year covered by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Reeves claimed £17,544.40 in accommodation costs, which included rent, council tax, phone, internet and utility bills.
As Chancellor, Reeves earns an annual salary of £158,851.
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Reeves is originally from Lewisham, south London. Rent on a three-bedroom property in the area averages at around £1800 per month, according to the estate agents Foxtons.
It is not clear whether Reeves (below) will use any of her newfound rental income to cover the cost of her constituency home. Labour have been approached for clarification.
Earlier this year it was reported that more than one in four of the new cohort of Scottish Labour MPs either owned second homes or made more than £10,000 per year as landlords renting out other properties.
In September, a renters’ union in London called for Labour MP Jas Athwal to step down after a BBC investigation found that properties he owned were infested with ants and black mould.
Athwal, whose 15 properties make him the biggest landlord in the Commons, sacked his property managers after the revelations.
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