MPs to hand back homes 'profits'

MPs have agreed to hand back hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of profits from taxpayer-funded homes.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) will publish details of repayment deals with 70 politicians on Thursday.

The watchdog moved to ban the use of Commons expenses to pay mortgage interest in May 2010, in the wake of public fury over "flipping" and other abuses.

However, transitional arrangements were put in place permitting MPs elected before 2010 to keep claiming the money up to last August - as long as they agreed to return any potential capital gain.

Some 71 members received an estimated one million pounds in allowances for mortgage interest during the period. The properties were formally valued at the beginning and the end, and the MPs were given until November 31 to repay the difference.

Ipsa said it would consider a longer repayment schedule - possibly extending to 2015 - if returning cash quickly would "create hardship".

But the process was delayed when a number of MPs signalled they were considering a legal challenge on the grounds that the watchdog had overstepped its powers.

Repayment deals are now thought to have been struck with 70 of the MPs, with only one case still to be settled. Ipsa is expected to release details of how much each politician owes, and how they will return the money, alongside the latest tranche of expenses claims.

The total is believed to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, as property prices in central London rose after the election.