by Simon Tulett

Borough MP Adam Holloway has switched to London for his second home allowance - a year after claiming more than £22,000 in expenses on his Gravesend property.

The Conservative MP claimed £22,500 of his £24,000 second home allowance in 2007/08, including £5,200 for carpets, £342 for tiles, more than £2,000 for furniture and a £500 television.

The receipts were submitted for a property in Gravesend which he had designated as his second home, while his primary residence was registered as a flat in London.

But now Mr Holloway says he has re-designated his second home as a rented property in London.

Mr Holloway's second homes bill for 2008/09, which has just been published, was for £6,783.45 - £16,000 lower than the previous year's.

But he hinted that his next second home bill could be higher. "Like most normal people I will continue to use the allowances available to me in my employment package," he said. "The next lot of figures will reflect my renting a London apartment for about nine months of the year."

Mr Holloway said his latest total is only comparatively low because it reflects a period when he tried commuting to Westminster, having sold a flat in London. But he said he has since given up on the train because he often did not get back to Gravesend until late at night - or would resort to sleeping on the office sofa.

The MP could be stripped of a second home allowance altogether once new rules come into force after the next General Election, expected in May - Sir Christopher Kelly's long-awaited plans for cleaning up the system propose stripping the allowance from almost 100 constituencies, including 12 outside London.