True Roger. But that’s the crux – the “place of work”. If the place of work is “A”, expenses for travelling to it (from home) are not for the purposes of the business. The travel is in order to get to the place of business (hence the admittedly loose use of the word commuting). From memory, there was a long and occasionally heated debate in a thread on hbinfo a few years ago on precisely this point. At the time, I took a different view. Until that is, someone posted something from the HMRC site which was pretty conclusive (case law cited et al) that travelling to the “place of work” from home wasn’t allowable even for tax purposes.
In CH/1330/2008, the “place of work” was found to the the claimant’s home. On that basis, any travel to “client” sites meant it was allowable. However, based on the info set out by the OP, it’s difficult to see how the claimant’s home is the “place of work” on the facts of that case.
Just for clarity, I’m not making a moral argument. I think the distinctions have the capacity to result in some pretty stupid outcomes. But, legally, I think David is stuck with the decision he has indicated he will make.