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Brian Dash at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Bournemouth |
“The Tory scare stories about Lib Dem tax policy is just plain wrong. It is a sign of panic at the prospect of the Tories losing the New Forest East parliamentary seat.” says Brian Dash parliamentary spokesman for New Forest East. “Only one new tax was proposed in our pre-manifesto and that was to raise the tax rate of taxable income over £100,000 to 50%. Liberal Democrats are committed to fairer tax, not more tax.”
“Julian & Desmond are clearly out of touch. They seem to think that a ‘typical working family’ in the New Forest has an income of £50,000 a year! I bet those pensioners on fixed incomes who struggle every year to pay the Council Tax would like £50,000 a year. Actually a pensioner couple on £14,600 a year in a Band D property would save over £1000 a year under our proposals to scrap the council tax and replace it with a local income tax. Under our proposals 7 out of 10 people will pay less than the Council Tax. By the way, how can we plan to double a tax we aim to abolish!?
The revenue from the one, only one, tax increase for the better off will be used to provide free personal care for the elderly (rather than having some of them forced to sell their homes to pay for care), abolition of student tuition fees and top-up fees and to hold down local taxes as Local Income Tax is introduced.
The really big question is whether Julian and Desmond support Council Tax, Tuition Fees and charges for elderly people who need personal care (the same care as if they were in hospital) in the home? |
