Grant Shapps MP makes an important point:
Householders in England and Wales are paying £80m extra council tax a year to subsidise students.
Quite right – it’s a serious problem. Would the Lib Dems’ local income tax policy solve the situation? ‘Fraid not. It is a curious thing to come from a Tory however, given that his party staunchly defends the very system – Council Tax – that is at fault here.
So what is the solution? Simple really: tax the landlord not the tenant. Mr Shapps should take a page out of his colleague David Curry‘s book and join the campaign for land value taxation.