London Evening Standard/London
Vince Cable defied George Osborne yesterday by launching a public campaign for a “mansion tax” and accusing the Tories of blocking it to protect “their friends”.
Cable: stoking tensions
The chancellor recently ruled out such a levy but the business secretary is refusing to accept his decision and is actively campaigning to overturn it — stoking coalition tensions.
Tory sources hit back at Cable’s latest push for the tax by dismissing the proposal — which would hit London hard — as “economically daft”. The Liberal Democrats’ mansion tax would apply to homes worth more than £2mn, putting a 1% levy on the value of the property above that level.
In an e-mail to LibDem supporters, Twickenham MP Cable said: “Unlike taxes on income, it is impossible to dodge a mansion tax. After all, a mansion can’t be hidden offshore.
“There is plenty of opposition from top investment bankers who would have to pay more tax. And the Tories don’t like it either; it will hit some of their friends.”
He said his tax would affect just 0.16% of property owners and that it was a popular move.
Cable added: “Our system of taxation is both unfair and inefficient. People on modest incomes are paying their fair share while the super-rich can too easily avoid paying their share. “It is a particular scandal that some of the world’s wealthiest people who own property in the UK worth millions pay virtually the same council tax as owners of a modest family home. I want to change this — I want a new ‘mansion tax’ on the most valuable properties.”
The senior LibDem’s move flies in the face of Osborne’s categoric stance against a new home tax.
He told the Conservative annual rally in Birmingham this month: “It would be sold as a mansion tax. But once the tax inspector had his foot in the door you’d soon find most homes in the country labelled a ‘mansion’. It’s not a mansion tax, it’s a homes tax, and this party of home ownership will have no truck with it.”