Guildford Liberal Democrats want to have their cake and eat it – attempting to make political capital locally from their so-called ‘green tax switch’ policy, but then ducking detailed scrutiny by making personal jibes at anyone who questions it (Surrey Advertiser, 16 February). Let’s raise the standard of debate.
• In the small print of their tax plan, only £8 billion of the £20 billion of the gross tax rises are from green taxes. The majority of the tax increases are from higher taxes placed on enterprise and income. This is hardly a ‘green switch’.
• Although the national basic rate would be reduced by 2 per cent, local councils would levy a local income tax of between 4 – 4½ pence in the pound to both the basic and higher rates of income tax , compounded by cutting back income tax relief on private pensions. Income taxes would rise not fall. Working families across Surrey would pay a lot more.
• The policy advocates a long-term move to a 1 per cent house price tax . A similar tax is being piloted in Ulster by the Government under direct rule, and was endorsed by a review for the Lib-Lab Executive in Scotland. Only Conservatives have opposed it. Such a tax would mean a yearly bill of £3,450 on an average Guildford property compared to an average council tax of £1,282.
The LibDem tax plan is a fig leaf – it looks small and green, but it can’t really cover their embarrassment – since it actually shifts the burden of tax onto people who have worked hard and saved. Using the political spin of ‘greenery’ to sell highly redistributive tax plans undermines the environmental cause, and contributes to increasing public scepticism over the merits of any green taxation.
Cllr Sheridan Westlake,
Borough councillor for Merrow
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