Let down by pledge to keep ‘triple lock’
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS:
A PA R T from promising a second EU referendum on the forthcoming Brexit deal, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron plans to add 1 per cent to income tax to raise cash for the NHS and social care, extend free childcare to all two-year-olds and give new dads an extra month’s paid paternity leave.
The party will also raise the income people can earn before losing Carer’s Allowance from £110 to £150 a week. It plans to raise i nheritance t ax thresholds and reverse cuts to capital gains tax.
Like the other parties the Lib Dems have big housebuilding ambitions, with a target of 300,000 new homes every year by 2022 of which 500,000 will be affordable and energy efficient.
Second- home owners will be targeted with a council tax charge of up to 200 per cent. On pen- sions, they remain committed to the state pension ‘triple lock’ for the duration of the next Parliament – an idea its pensions boffins conceived when part of the Lib Dem/ Conservative Coalition Government. The party promises a review into whether to introduce a flat rate of tax relief for pension contributions. VERDICT: The Lib Dems could have been a breath of fresh air, but in the event are quite the opposite. The triple lock is not affordable long term, and yet they want the country to stick to it.
The moves on inheritance t ax and capital gains t ax are in t he wrong direction – the Government would be better to reduce the marginal rates of these taxes and thereby remove the huge incentive for people to undertake taxplanning to avoid them.