Taxpayers' bill for Blunkett home refit

More than £100,000 of taxpayers' money was spent last year on the official London residence of Home Secretary David Blunkett, it emerged today.

The bill included an £85,000 refit for the Belgravia house used by Mr Blunkett since 1997, which was valued three years ago at £2 million.

Another £19,222 went on leasing the South Eaton Place property - including ground rent and utility bills.

The refurbishment was the first major programme of work carried out on the grace-and-favour home for several years and was needed to repair storm damage, Mr Blunkett told MPs.

He said the work was now "largely complete" and that, once finished, nothing more should need to be done on the structure for several years.

The Home Secretary added: "The work was needed to maintain the repair and value of the property and to deal with the impact of substantial flood and storm damage."

He said the completion of "this cycle of work will put the property on a sound footing for the future. No further major refurbishment work should be required". The house has traditionally-been given for use of the home secretary - but Mr Blunkett began living in it as education secretary in 1997 after Jack Straw, Tony Blair's first home secretary, said he did not want it.

Mr Straw preferred to remain in his family home in Pimlico, allowing Mr Blunkett to move in and not to have to commute to Whitehall from his former Wimbledon home.

However, this arrangement landed Mr Blunkett in trouble after he let out his one-bedroom Wimbledon residence for £700 a month but failed to declare this income.

After newspaper revelations he pledged he would do so - - even though he was technically within in his rights not to list the arrangements in the Register of Members' Interests.

At the time, the House of Commons' rules of conduct said MPs should declare any "significant" income from property not being used as their residence, but no threshold was set.