The Hon Kirstie Allsopp is showing me the downstairs lavatory in her third
home. “I made this wallpaper myself,” she explains, pointing out a couple of
smudges on the beautiful block print. “And I blew these glasses myself,” she
adds, wandering into her new kitchen. Her sideboards are reclaimed from
science labs. “And that rug came from a skip,” she says. “I made the bowls
at a local pottery. This poker is mine, I forged it at a blacksmith. I made
the lampshade as well.”
In her bedroom she points out the salvaged bath and the bed. “Feel these
sheets. They are from Matalan, 220-thread Egyptian cotton, half the price of
anywhere else and they are the most beautiful sheets to sleep on.”
This is why Allsopp, the co-presenter of the aspirational property programme Location,
Location, Location and an adviser to Cameron’s Tories on all things
housing, is so angry. Her once derelict cottage in North Devon has been
furnished for less than £10,000. “How could MPs have spent so much on their
second houses? They have just been throwing taxpayers’ money away,” she
says, referring to the details released recently of MPs’ expenses. “I don’t
begrudge them some help. But they’re so profligate: Jacqui Smith’s barbecue
and patio set was outrageous at £200. It’s a luxury not a necessity.” Her
boyfriend got theirs on eBay for £75. She laughs. “I don’t think he spends
his evenings watching porn, he’s addicted to salvage.com.”
Allsopp can’t understand why MPs wouldn’t love hunting for bargains as they
drive round their constituency. “They seem to have been sucked into this
benefits culture, so they just think, ‘What can I get?’. Not, ‘How will this
help my community too?’, or that they might enjoy making their own
toothbrush holder from an old mug. They should scavenge their
constituencies. Why are they charging for scatter cushions when they can
make cushions themselves? Cherie Blair got pilloried for buying shoes on
eBay but bargain hunting should be encouraged.”
When I point out gently that MPs might be busy, she snorts derisively: as a
working mother of two she is an effective multitasker, and she can’t
understand why MPs can’t do their own DIY too.
As we sit in her kitchen she is scrubbing her local organic carrots, reading a
book to her eldest and griddling crumpets on the Aga for her two stepsons.
On the drive down from London to her home, she managed to fit in an
advertisement on composting for Devon council.
She had just had her youngest son when she had the idea for a programme (Kirstie’s
HomeMade Home, to be broadcast on Channel 4 on April 16) on making
improvements to her own house. “I was determined to take six months off with
my new baby but like many people I was freaked out about getting work and
having any money. Everyone started blaming me for being one of the people
who had helped the housing market get out of control and I thought that I
had to do something to help people with their houses in the downturn. So
this programme will show you how to decorate on a budget. I am now working
flat out. And what I am saying is that MPs need to be working hard too, not
just grabbing what they can get.”
She knows how tough it is to run a small British company in the downturn. “I
worked with a blacksmith who couldn’t afford to take on an apprentice
because he wasn’t even paying himself the minimum wage. I’ve seen the
bureaucracy that these companies face and MPs should see it too.”
The father of her two children, Ben Andersen, a property developer, arrives
and turns on Lily Allen on the radio. “F*** You,” she sings. “I think that
is how many people feel about the Government,” he says. “Everyone is
struggling apart from them.”
Allsopp wants the “John Lewis list” of products that MPs can claim for to be
replaced by cheaper items and believes that claims should be scrutinised
independently. “There should be an expenses commissioner, someone who looks
at contentious expenses and says, ‘No sorry, you are pushing your luck’. I
wouldn’t mind doing it. I wouldn’t have patio heaters, you should eat inside
if it is cold.”
She is happy to write the list. “I am a pram expert and a potato peeler
expert, I know exactly how much it should all cost. They need to find
someone as expenses commissioner who understands about family life.” The
commissioner should also use his or her discretion, Allsopp says. “An MP
just starting out with a young family who is struggling maybe really does
need help with a bath plug. Some of them have just got too used to putting
on [expenses] the shower curtain and the bath mat, taking whatever they can
for free, forgetting that it is there to help the genuinely needy MPs. MPs
should think before they claim, ‘Can I justify taking this money off my
constituents?’
“I am sympathetic to MPs in terms of public condemnation because I know how
hard it is to be constantly scrutinised and the ones I know do work
incredibly hard. But this has shaken me. I am not a cynical person but some
have gone too far.”
Allsopp says that she has also realised why MPs never listened to her when she
kept trying to tell them that stamp duty and home information packs (Hips)
were making it impossible for many to move. “MPs would say to me, £300 is
nothing for a Hip, stamp duty is fine’. But that is because they have so
much help with buying and moving homes. They saw the property market as a
cash cow. But most people weren’t moving to make money, they were moving
because their family was growing, or they were getting divorced, or retiring
or changing jobs.
“If their house cost them £300,000 they would be paying £20,000 after tax on
stamp duty and fees and that is before removal men, new paint and washing
machines. That is one of the reasons we got into 95 per cent mortgages.
“But the MPs didn’t understand or care because they wouldn’t be able to tell
you how much stamp duty they paid for their second house because they
claimed it back.”
She doesn’t want to take everything away, though. “We certainly don’t want to
get to a position where the only people who can become MPs are the rich, but
they also need to be aware of the real world,” she says.
“I am proud of the programme, it’s like Blue Peter for
grown ups, telling you how to make your own homes.”
CV
Name Kirstie Mary Allsopp
Born August 31, 1973
Family The daughter of Lord Hindlip, the former chairman of Christie’s.
She lives with Ben Andersen in Notting Hill and Devon, and has two sons, Bay
and Oscar, and two stepsons, Orion and Hal
Education St Clotilde’s School, Gloucestershire, and Bedales School,
Hampshire, then taught English in India.
Career Worked for Country Living, and Food & Home magazines, worked
for the interior designer Nicky Haslam, founded Kirmir Property Search and
in 1996 founded Garrington Homefinders. She is co-presenter of the Channel 4
programme Location, Location, Location and an adviser to the Conservative
Party on housing
Interests Shoes and bargains: once voted 99th-sexiest woman in the
world
