Two homes hypocrite!
Comrade McDonnell threatens to clamp down on landlords ... but plan WON’T hit his Norfolk holiday home he calls a ‘hut’
JOHN McDonnell was accused of ‘blind hypocrisy’ yesterday after it emerged he has a second home while threatening to clamp down on buy-to-let owners.
The Shadow Chancellor and his wife Cynthia Pinto are joint owners of the £170,000 two-bedroom riverside chalet on the Norfolk Broads.
It has a private jetty, with three boats outside. The property – described as a ‘hut’ by a Labour spokesman – is used as a family holiday home and is not rented out by the couple.
But critics pointed out this means Mr McDonnell, 67, would avoid the clampdown against private landlords that he proposed this week.
Last year Labour attacked second homes as contributing to housing problems and part of a ‘crisis of inequality’. Tory MP Ben Bradley said yesterday: ‘This is blind hypocrisy from a man whose party has publicly slammed second home owners. It’s clear that Marxist McDonnell has more in common with the very people his hard-Left comrades love to hate.
‘ What we do know is John McDonnell would be sitting pretty whilst Labour is hammering home owners with higher taxes and those trying to make their way on to the housing ladder.’ A neighbour in the village of Potter Heigham on the River Thurne added: ‘This is just hypocrisy. The fact is he isn’t just Labour, he’s a Marxist.’
Another local said: ‘He can afford a second property but wants to take people to the cleaners if they own somewhere they rent out.’
Chris Norris, of the National Landlords’ Association, said: ‘The Shadow Chancellor seems to have more in common with private landlords than he likes to admit, although at least landlords’ additional properties provide homes to those in need. The NLA wholeheartedly supports John McDonnell’s right to own as many properties as he likes. We would simply ask that he affords our members the same courtesy rather than proposing that they be forced to sell at a loss.’
Mr McDonnell’s main home is a £760,000 house in Hayes, west London, which was bought with a mortgage. The wooden chalet bungalow was bought for £135,000 outright in December 2013.
It is now estimated to be worth £170,000. The front of the property overlooks the river while the rear view is a meadow with cows.
A local handyman looks after the garden, which has a neat lawn with roses, honeysuckle and fuchsias. Neighbours said the property was in use around 50 per cent of the time – on occasional weekends by Mr McDonnell and his wife and at other times by family members. One told MailOnline: ‘McDonnell’s son finished university last year and came up with three or four friends for a week.
‘They created bedlam, making a lot of noise and jumping in the river. They even bashed his boat into the staithe [wharf]. One of the neighbours called McDonnell’s wife to tell her what the hell was going on at their property.’
But another local gave a different story, saying: ‘They were a nice bunch who were enjoying themselves and didn’t cause any trouble. Anyone who wants to say different needs to get a life.’
Mr McDonnell enjoys sitting in his garden overlooking the river, with passers-by on boats apparently unaware who he is. A local said: ‘Nobody seems to recognise him but the people who have homes around here all know who he is.’ The chalet, which could generate up to £700 a week if rented in the summer, was bought with 63 years remaining on the lease. The freehold is owned by the Environment Agency.
Along with other leaseholders, Mr McDonnell and his wife are shareholders in a company which manages their homes.
Each property incurs a service charge of around £200 a year.
Other Band A properties in the area are subject to council tax of £1,188 a year but many chalet owners pay just £772 under rules that allow local authorities to reduce charges on dwellings that are not the owner’s main home. Deeds limit occupants to staying a maximum of 50 weeks a year and they are not allowed to declare the chalets as their main property. Under parliamentary rules, MPs are required to register any property they own that is worth more than £100,000 or earns them over £10,000 a year in rental income.
However, this does not apply if the property is ‘wholly for their own personal residential purposes, or those of their spouse or children’. A spokesman for Mr McDonnell said: ‘John and his wife have a riverside hut, with mooring, two small rowboats and a small sailer cruiser that he is restoring.
‘The hut is used by his family for holidays where he enjoys a great time sailing with his children and grandchildren. John has received no complaints from neighbours.’
‘He would be sitting pretty’