Sorry, Terpe, I may have jumped the gun a little! I have called the company (whose link I provided) and they say there is no such rule on Spouse Visas.
What the gentleman told me is that they have reduced the number of days absence allowed from 450 days to 180 days (over 5 years) for Visas (other than Spouse) when applying for ILR So, he recommends not going absent for more than 4 weeks each year if you have a non-spouse Visa and wish to apply for ILR.
He told me that he would not see a problem with 86 days absence in one year on a Spouse Visa (based on something in European Human Rights).
He confirmed that the number of days absence allowed when applying for naturalisation still remains at an average of 90 days/year, so this does conflict with the new (unpublished) absence rules for non-spousal ILR applicants.
He says that this government has brought in this new lower limit for non-spouse ILR applications by stealth and that it is not mentioned anywhere officially!
It seems his company has generated extra business from those applying for ILR recently where they have had an absence from the UK just in excess of 180 days over 5 years, even if those 180 days were accrued before the new rules came into force!
