Sir Michael Spicer has brought forward his monthly column for your Worcester News to talk about parliamentary expenses.

I first entered Parliament at the age of 31. I had little money at the time. The income of an MP, after paying a secretary, was under £1,000. In my case it was necessary to build up my company, which I sold when I joined the Thatcher Government. The proceeds of the sale enabled me to buy a house in London (three bedrooms) and one in Cropthorne, near Pershore (five bedrooms). My wife, Ann, and I brought up our three children in both houses with the help of the second home allowance which has always covered only part of the total costs of Cropthorne. We could not have survived on an MP’s pay alone. The dominant culture at the time was such that you did not buy your second house with state assistance but you were helped to maintain it to a standard of which you were not ashamed.

All that has changed. Many MPs are now single or divorced. Maintenance of family life seems to matter less. Assistance with property purchase is what counts.

I have continued to place the emphasis on maintenance which has become increasingly expensive as wear and tear has set in, and, yes, I have claimed the allowances available to meet these costs Should they be available? Sir Christopher Kelly will decide.

I have made some mistakes of definition. I have used ‘gardening’ as a catchall to include, for instance, maintenance and security (I was once on the IRA death list). I have always kept detailed bills and receipts including one describing a modest glass light fitting as a ‘chandelier’, which I paid for myself. Another mentioned hedge-cutting around the ‘the helipad’, jokingly so called by the family. As the BBC found out when they tried to land a helicopter on Tuesday, there is no ‘helipad’ or anything like it in my garden. This did not stop the BBC running the ‘helipad’ story for the rest of the day.

I shall now no doubt be remembered, not for what I did to help secure a new hospital for Malvern or the Evesham bypass, nor the 100,000 or so people to whom I have managed to give some assistance, nor my 10 years in Lady Thatcher’s Government nor the eight years I have spent as chairman of my party in Parliament. I shall be remembered as “that man with the helipad” –in reality a small terrace with one table and a garden chair.