Fairer Shares tries again with new Conference Motion

Having been rejected for the Autumn Conference, ALTER is supporting efforts by Andrew Dixon and others to promote progressive reform of domestic property taxes again at the Party's Spring Conference.

The Fairer Shares campaign is promoting a Proportional Property Tax (PPT) which would replace Counci Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax and the so-called Bedroom Tax (in England only - these taxes are devolved to Wales and Scotland) and lead to greatly reduced taxes for most households. Details are in https://fairershare.org.uk/

The revised Motion is already supported by ALTER President Sir Vince Cable and ALTER's Executive. The more Lib Dem members who support it, the better its chances of gaining support.

The main reason it failed to gain support from the Federal Conference Committee last time was that the motion then lacked any element of local council control over the tax rate. Andrew's team - who were behind the successful Commercial Landowner Levy that Conference adopted as Party policy (replacing Business Rates) in Autumn 2019 - have now given 1/3 of the rate to local councils to set but have added a clause that requires the overall tax take to remain 'revenue neutral' for councils in their budgets for the year in which reform takes place. It is as important for the publc not to think this reform is cover for an overall tax hike as it is to retain local control over local taxes.

Here is the amended Motion https://libdemsalter.org.uk/en/document/fairer-shares-conference-motion.docx

Please email tony@libdemsalter.org.uk giving your name, Party membership number abd Local Party name to let us know you support the Motion.

It has never been more important to reduce the tax burden on the asset poor than now. That is why Fairer Share is prioritising working with Tory MPs. If this Government is serious about 'levelling up', it must tackle wealth inequality even harder than income inequality. PPT is a half-way to LVT, which is why ALTER supports it.