South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt today voiced his concern at the Liberal Democrats' controversial move to hit Waverley homeowners with a new house price tax. The Liberal Democrats have recently endorsed new tax plans, backing a controversial new house price tax. It calls for taxing ""unearned economic rent"" to ""stabilise the property market"" by introducing the ""satisfactory"" Danish model of a ""national 1 per cent property tax."" This would be on top of plans for a new local income tax of up to 5 per cent on both basic and higher rates of income tax. Jeremy believes that Waverley would be one of the hardest hit areas in the whole of the UK under any such tax proposal. With a 1 per cent house price tax, the average property in Waverley would now pay a local tax bill of £3,184 a year. Jeremy said: ""I am very concerned that the Liberal Democrats are actively planning to introduce a house price tax – and opportunistically tap into the rise in property values in recent years. ""Families and pensioners who have saved and improved their homes face the threat of soaring tax bills, without any improvements in their local services. Just because house prices have risen doesn't mean that local residents can afford even higher local taxes. ""Many people are already struggling to meet the rising cost of mortgages, utility bills and local taxes. I doubt that these Lib-Dem plans for weighty tax bills will be welcome on Waverley's doorsteps."" LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PLANS FOR A NEW HOUSE PRICE TAXOn 19 September, Liberal Democrat Conference ratified as official Party policy their new tax plans (Liberal Democrats, Fairer, Simpler, Greener, Policy Paper 75). http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/PP75%20Fairer%20Simpler%20Greener.pdfThe small print affirms support for replacing council tax with local income tax of 4.0-4.5 per cent (which will be even higher in high-spending councils). And in a new move, Liberal Democrats also want to introduce a new, additional tax on domestic property. They talk up the prospect of an annual levy charged on the value of the house. This would have the effect of significantly increasing taxation on areas where property values have risen in recent years. Their policy motion explains, ""Conference endorses policy paper 75, Fairer, Simpler, Greener, as a statement of the party's policies... [Calls for policies to] Enlarge the tax base, tax unearned economic rent and stabilise the property market by further developing policies on land value taxation... Conference calls for further policies for land taxation to be developed, including consideration of the Lyons Review report when it is published"" (Official policy motion at Liberal Democrat Party Conference, 19 September 2006). http://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/agenda.html?id=685&navPage=conferenceagenda.htmlThe policy document elaborates, ""Liberal Democrat policy has the effect of removing the main tax on domestic properties (council tax) and replacing it via a non-property tax (local income tax). While we are persuaded of the strong arguments in favour of local income tax… this will leave the UK in a unique position internationally of having no direct taxation of property at all… Taxation of property should be retained if a better mechanism can be found"" ( Fairer, Simpler, Greener, p.21)… ""We believe land taxation potentially has an important part to play in a balanced overall tax system"" ( p.22).""There are satisfactory models elsewhere, notably Denmark where a national 1% property tax (with an allowance for low value property) has operated for 80 years"" ( p.22).http://www.libdems.org.uk/media/documents/policies/PP75%20Fairer%20Simpler%20Greener.pdf