Lib Dem General Election candidate for Bury South, Vic D’Albert has welcomed todays announcement by Vince Cable of an additional property levy on properties worth over £1m.

“This measure would inject a bit more fairness into a distorted Council Tax system which would enable the Government to redistribute tax revenues to the low paid and remove many from tax altogether.” 

The new charge of 0.5% would apply to the value of a property above £1m. So if a home was worth £1.5m the 0.5% tax would apply to £500,000 of it, meaning the owner will have to pay £2,500 a year. The extra tax on a £4m property would be £15,000 a year. The Lib Dems say about 250,000 property-owners would pay about £4,000 a year each on average mostly in the South-East of England.  

Vic D’Albert commented, “It’s important that we balance this additional tax levy with what we are trying to achieve and that is all about lifting four million people – workers and pensioners – out of taxation and cutting taxes for people at the bottom end in a fair way.”  

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: “I think people, even at the top end, now accept we need to try and rebalance things a bit so that everyone moves together – the whole of society moves together, it’s about fairness and rebalancing one of the most unfair tax systems around.This is a small correction which I think will make a big difference for people who are really struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

The new tax would be a “temporary” measure until it was able to implement its plans for a local income tax. People on low incomes, who are currently receiving council tax benefit, would be exempt, although the party has stressed it does not believe there are many low income people living in million pound homes.