Lord a-leeching
Ben Houchen
, Issue 1686
Taken with claims for 19 days on which he has registered a vote or spoken (three times, including on his introduction to the House as Baron Houchen of High Leven), the total up to July comes to £33,260. The claims were made on trips to London almost always paid for by the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), chaired by Houchen and covering one of Britain’s most deprived regions.
Spending data examined by the Eye under local government audit laws shows that in the last financial year, 2025/26, Houchen racked up around £10,000 in train fares to London, and while he was at it incurred hotel bills of more than £5,000.
House money
There’s no question Houchen sometimes heads to London on legitimate Tees Valley business, although the purpose of his trips is described on internal cost reports simply as “meetings”. But he certainly makes the most of the opportunities to trouser a fat parliamentary cheque while he’s down there.
In 2025/26 he stayed in the capital at Teesside’s expense on 16 nights while parliament was in session, with information obtained by the Eye under freedom of information laws showing that he claimed 21 daily House of Lords attendance allowance for an adjacent day or multiple days. On just three of these days did he vote, with no spoken contributions.
Downing tool
Only very rarely does the reason for one of Houchen’s London visits emerge. On 4 February last year, for example, he attended a meeting at No 10 to discuss AI and data centres, posting a video of himself leaving Downing Street apparently in the afternoon. The same day he claimed an attendance allowance, with no sign of his doing anything in parliament.
“Attendance”, according to House of Lords rules, includes presence in the chamber or other parliamentary committee meetings, and to claim a daily allowance (currently £371) the member must certify that he or she has “undertaken parliamentary work”.
It’s open to peers to claim half this amount if they think this is what their efforts merit, and they must decide whether to claim on their “personal honour”.
The Eye asked Houchen what parliamentary work he had performed on a sample of ten dates for which he claimed the full allowance since early 2025 (linked to all of which he had claimed travel and hotel expenses from TVCA). He did not respond.
Perusing Parliament TV coverage of the Lords chamber on the relevant dates yields no sign of him.
Next issue on sale: 5th November 2026
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