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Wales politicians spends thousands of taxpayers money on sofa.

It may astound most hardworking taxpayers in Wales that their political representatives in the Welsh Assembly are provided with an allowance for furnishing a second home. But spending £2,000 on a sofa, might just overwhelm nearly everyone. Most taxpayers have difficulty furnishing their one and only home. For £2000 they would expect to be able to buy a complete three piece suite and still have change left over for something else.

£2,000 is a great deal of money to spend on one sofa but, if money is no object and the purchaser is not having to fund the purchase himself, then this will seem quite insignificant, especially for a second home. Most people will spend a lot of time choosing furniture for their own homes and will want to be sure that they get the greatest value for money possible. After all, they expect their furniture to last for many years and to be able to withstand heavy domestic use.

As many taxpayers buy furniture using credit cards or store cards, the pieces they buy will be a constant reminder to them of how much they have spent. To earn the money to spend on furnishing their homes, they have to work hard and pay a considerable amount of money to the Government in tax – the thought of that hard-earned tax contribution funding a sofa for someone’s second home will be extremely irritating.

A second home allowance is made for Welsh Assembly members, as it is for all British politicians, if their main residence is considered to be too far away from the Assembly itself to make daily commuting from home viable. However, most taxpayers do not have this luxury as can be evidenced from the huge traffic jams that are a regular occurrence during the rush hour.

With an allowance of £12,500 for a second home, it is easy to see why some Assembly members think nothing of spending £2,000 on a sofa. After all, they already have their main residence, which will be well-furnished because their salaries are higher than average, so it goes without saying that they will view their allowance as a bonus and the less-conscientious will make sure that they spend every penny.

What makes this even more perplexing to the taxpayer is that these second homes probably do not get much use. As parliament sits for around six months of the year, Welsh Assembly members will spend the remaining six months in their own constituencies and in their main residence, ostensibly still pursuing their political duties. This means that their second home will be gathering dust while not in use.

A sofa purchased for £2,000 would be expected to have been crafted using top quality materials by a bespoke furniture maker; indeed, some of those bought by Assembly members using their generous second-home allowance will probably be designer-made. However, the fact remains that, for whatever purpose a sofa is purchased, be it for appearance’s sake only or for utility and comfort, there are many available these days that would cost a fraction of the price.

The taxpayer should have confidence that their hard-earned contributions to the national purse are being spent wisely and not being spent simply because vast sums are made available. As it is, if they were ever asked their opinion, the majority may say that £2,000 is simply too much to pay for a sofa and, should they themselves ever have the opportunity to spend money that was simply given to them on top of their regular income, they would get a great deal more for the price.
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