Finance Bill

Debate between Chris Leslie and Nigel Adams

Monday 1st July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

I can assure the Minister that he is wrong to have concerns that anyone is looking to apply the policy to properties below £2 million in value. I can assure him that Gauke Towers will be safe, unless of course in leafy Hertfordshire that property has now increased in value to that level. Perhaps the Valuation Office Agency could give us an estimate, but I assure him that that is not the intention. We simply urge the Government to come clean on the research, which we now understand the Treasury has commissioned.

We now have a couple of Liberal Democrats in the Chamber, albeit looking at their iPhones—[Interruption.] Their Samsung Galaxys—my apologies. They will be interested to know that the Treasury has commissioned research into the feasibility of a mansion tax, so now we know that it is worth a freedom of information request to try to elicit the information. Let us draw out the information.

The Minister mentioned that there are 55,000 properties worth £2 million or above. The Liberal Democrat manifesto promise may well yet come to fruition. We know that the Liberal Democrats put a lot of effort into pulling together the detailed figures on the proposal. We were persuaded of the case and now it looks as though slowly but surely the Treasury is coming into that frame of mind, too.

It is right that we focus on finding a way to support a tax cut that would supplement the personal allowance zero rating. The 10p starting rate would be a better and more progressive tax, which could be supported by the hon. Members for Harlow (Robert Halfon), for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) and for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers)—those Conservative Members who have voiced the case in favour of a 10p starting rate of income tax in recent months.

We know that the annual tax on enveloped dwellings could be the foundation upon which the administration of the policy could work. I was not convinced by the Minister’s argument that there was no read-across from that new tax, which the Treasury is introducing in this Bill. My hon. Friends the Members for Swansea West (Geraint Davies), for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore), for Islwyn (Chris Evans) and for Telford (David Wright) spoke eloquently about the economic benefits that could arise if the new 10p band were in place for lower and middle-income households. That money could feed through into the economy more directly and in a progressive way. The hardship and the tax rises that we have seen from the coalition parties have not reduced the deficit, which is going up. Unfortunately, that is the price being paid for the Government’s failed economic plan.

We still hope to persuade the Government that steps can be taken to help people on lower and middle incomes this year. Let us get the Treasury to publish that work. Now we know that research has been commissioned, let us have it published and in the public domain. It could help to stimulate the economy and help the many people who are finding life much harder under this Government. The concept of a mansion tax, asking those with considerable wealth to pay a fairer share to help those on more modest means, is an idea whose time has come.

[Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)]

In my neck of the woods, there are not too many people with £2 million houses. There may well be in Nottingham East. This issue was raised earlier, but will the hon. Gentleman make it absolutely clear whether the Labour party’s plans for the mansion tax include farmhouses?

[Chris Leslie]

I do not think that our plans do. We would look at mansions—that form of housing accommodation. However, I would be prepared to see whether the Treasury study, which could be commissioned under the new clause, could look at whether farmhouses would be ruled out. We would be happy to look at such questions. We should, however, be looking at personal estates of £2 million and more in that built-mansion context. That is the nature of the proposition before us. In clause 97 and beyond, definitions of property are set out in respect of the annual tax on enveloped dwellings. They provide a series of exemptions and set out where the line should be drawn in terms of farmhouses and so forth. I recommend those clauses to the hon. Gentleman, as they may well serve as a guide to how a mansion tax could work in future.

We need that work to be undertaken, however. This new clause does not seek instantly to implement the Liberal Democrat proposition. It simply seeks to find ways of building on that as a basis on which to look at the annual tax on enveloped dwellings, thinking of how that might apply to a mansion tax, and in particular using that revenue to help 25 million basic rate taxpayers. That is the objective. We have got to give more help to those who are finding it difficult to make ends meet. That is why I commend this new clause to the House.

Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.