TRANSPARENCY has been called for over the finances of the Commons Speaker after it emerged the taxpayer has spent thousands of pounds in tax to enable John Bercow and other senior Westminster officials to live in grace and favour homes.

HM Revenue and Customs has classed the use of the UK Parliament's historic residences as a personal taxable benefit. Yet for at least the past four years the Commons authorities have agreed to meet liabilities, which cover running costs and council tax, from public money.

Senior officials make a "contribution" of a few hundred pounds a year each but it is not clear whether the Speaker does.

Protracted negotiations with HMRC also now seem to have left Mr Bercow's residence exempt from tax altogether because while he is housed by the Commons, he is paid directly from UK Government coffers.

Details of the arrangements – which appear far more generous than those granted to David Cameron and George Osborne for their Downing Street flats – came to light after freedom of information requests.

A spokesman for the agency said that while provision of the accommodation itself is not liable to tax, personal usage of the living facilities had been treated as a benefit in kind between 2008 and 2010.

The ministerial code explicitly states that the Prime Minister and Chancellor must pay the tax liabilities on their residences.

Asked whether, like other officials, Mr Bercow paid a contribution to running costs, the spokesman replied: "No information is held."