The origins of the "Mansion Tax", mentioned in Vince Cable's speech at Bournemouth last month, go back to early 2006, as a policy working group, the Lib Dem Tax Commission (TC), started serious work. Many Lib Dem MPs saw any continuing domestic property tax alongside "Axe The Tax" (i.e. scrapping of Council Tax) as (a) confusing for voters and (b) expensive to achieve.
ALTER Chair Tony Vickers was among over 2000 Lib Dems at the Special Federal Conference of Lib Dems in Birmingham on Sunday 16th May 2010 - a date for the history books, as the first appearance of a Liberal Cabinet Minister before a Party Conference for some 75 years.
Several ALTER members attended a seminar organised by the Coalition for Economic Justice last week, which aimed to explore common ground between campaigners on Money Reform and Land (Tax) Reform. A full report will shortly appear on the CEJ website.
Report on CEJ Conference on Money and Land Reform
A paper which largely draws on policy drafted by ALTER and approved by Party Conference in 2007 has been sent to HM Treasury's Commercial Property Tax Team, at their request. This followed a meeting in HM Treasury, attended by ALTER's Dr Tony Vickers, that was set up before the General Election by the cross-party Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ). Subsequent to that meeting, CEJ wrote a pre-Budget submission to Chancellor George Osborne, copying the letter to Vince Cable.
The motion which ALTER had supported (although it was not our idea) on radical reform of the way that money is created "from thin air" by banks has not been accepted by the Party's Federal Conference Committee (FCC).
