"Flipping" was seen as contentious because it has been used by some MPs who wanted to profit from the system, either by playing the property market or by using the second home allowance to refurbish one property before "flipping" and then using the allowance to refurbish another.
Regardless of the real reasons why Rennard has now left – his health reasons are genuine but so is the strength of feeling about him using the allowance system to buy a second home – it is impossible to over-estimate how he has transformed the Lib Dems' prospects.
The 0870 app searches this database for the 08* number you're trying to call, and if it finds an alternative landline number, you're given the option to call it from directly within the app, using the allowance you've already paid for.
Open Europe said tonight: "Unless Clegg can show that he kept this allowance completely separate from his 'private income' by literally having two separate bank accounts and keeping the two pots of money separate … he most likely used the allowances (at the very least the daily allowance) to pay off the mortgage and to buy the house.
The government is considering letting people use the allowance more than once.
However, if you are one of many people who has had several different jobs over the years and has both defined contribution and defined benefit pensions, you will be able to use the allowance to pay for advice on all of your pension assets.
Tony Hogg, who lives in Helston, about 100 miles (160km) from police headquarters, uses the allowance for accommodation in Lympstone, about nine miles (14km) away.
When using an allowance, whether it was received for free or purchased, a firm loses the opportunity to sell that allowance, and thereby recognizes this "opportunity cost" in deciding whether to use the allowance.
Use the allowance approach if it fits.
Military members also have the option of using the housing allowance to live off base.
