Conservatives Support Local Property Taxes

Written by Paul H Griffiths on Tue 7th Nov 2006

Recently the Conservative parliamentary candidate for West Worcestershire has been attacking non-existent Lib Dem plans to impose a 1% property value tax. It's nothing but spin. But what's worse, she seems to have forgotten that her own party introduced, and still supports, a local property tax: namely, the council tax.

Earlier this year the Lib Dems published their plans to scrap the unfair council tax and replace it with a local income tax that's more closely related to people's ability to pay. We also pledged to return the business rate to local control. We acknowledged at the time that this would leave the UK without any direct tax on property - a situation that many economists consider unwise. So we said we'd reconsider the issue again once we'd seen the outcome of the Lyons Inquiry, which was set up by the Government specifically to look at how to pay for local councils. So we've made no specific commitment to introduce a property-based tax. But even if we did, we'd make sure to protect the vulnerable by making offsetting reductions in other taxes or by raising tax thresholds. The aim would be to achieve a stable mix of taxes to serve the needs of the country. We would not tax for tax's sake.

Meanwhile, the Tories are still wedded to the unfair council tax, which they introduced after the disaster of the poll tax. Let's be clear: council tax is a tax based on the value of your home. But, because the council tax bands in England have never been revalued, it's based on the value as it was in April 1991. The Tories at first seemed to support revaluation, then did a quick U-turn at the last General Election when they realised how unpopular it would be! So now they're stuck with an unfair tax, that falls particularly hard on people with low and fixed incomes, and which is by now hopelessly inaccurate and out-of-date.

Perhaps before Ms Baldwin criticises Lib Dem plans for funding local government, she should devise some of her own!