The Daily Telegraph

Lamont warns Chancellor off a generation­al war in taxation

- By Christophe­r Hope CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPOND­ENT

PHILIP HAMMOND has been warned by a former Tory chancellor not to start a “generation­al war in the tax system” by giving tax breaks to young workers, paid for by older people.

Lord Lamont, who was chancellor from 1990 to 1993, said it was wrong to blame elderly people for soaring house prices that stopped young people buying new homes.

Mr Hammond, the current Chancellor, is understood to be examining ways to link tax to age for the first time to promote “intergener­ational fairness” in next month’s Budget.

Tax breaks would be offered to workers in their 20s and 30s, paid for by cutting pension relief for older and better-off workers.

However, Lord Lamont attacked the plans saying that “it is not the fault of elderly people that house prices are high” and “intergener­ational unfairness is a load of bunk”.

The peer told The Daily Telegraph: “Intergener­ational inequality is a silly idea. I don’t want a generation­al war in the tax system – it would be the height of folly.

“One of the reasons we did badly in the election was because we proposed something that was seen as a tax on the elderly. We don’t want to go down that road again.

“This idea of intergener­ational unfairness is a load of bunk – because obviously older people who live longer have more assets and more savings.

“It has always been the case and always will.”

Lord Lamont’s concerns were supported by Baroness Altmann, a former pensions minister, who said: “The suggestion that older people should be punished to provide more money for the young could harbour potentiall­y lethal political damage. The Tories’ core voters are older people, it would be rash in the extreme to risk alienating them in the coming Budget.”

One former cabinet minister said: “I am very concerned we haven’t learnt the lesson of the manifesto, which was not to create a divide between young and old. It is a mistake to think that making pensioners worse off is automatica­lly going to increase the wealth of another generation.”

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