David Cameron calls Labour's tax policy 'nuts'

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/29/david-cameron-labour-tax-policy-nuts

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David Cameron has branded Ed Miliband's tax policy "nuts" as he claimed that the Tories were best placed to secure the economic recovery by rushing forward a scheme to help home buyers.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 ahead of the opening of the Conservative party conference in Manchester, the prime minister said that Labour would jeopardise jobs by "bashing business".

Cameron made clear that the main theme of the conference would be to champion hard-working families as he announced the government would be bringing forward the second phase of its Help to Buy scheme. The Treasury scheme, which been due to start in January, will underwrite the costs of deposits on homes worth up to £600,000.

Cameron dismissed claims that the scheme could fuel a housing bubble after the Bank of England said there is no bubble. He said: "The housing market is recovering but from a low base. If you look at prices outside London and the south-east they are only going up by 0.8%. Talk of a housing bubble to people here in Manchester or Salford and they would literally laugh in your face.

"But the problem we are trying to deal with is this: today the average family can't afford the average house. That is not a problem with the housing market it is a problem with our banks and our mortgage market. Right now it is very difficult to get a 90 or a 95% mortgage and so that means that a typical family with two people, maybe earning £25,000, they are being asked in order to buy an average house to find a £40,000 deposit. They can afford the mortgage payments but they can't get a mortgage, they can't buy the flat or the house.

"As prime minister, I'm not going to stand back while people's aspirations to get on the housing ladder, to own their own flat, to own their own home are being trashed. That is why we need to act."

The prime minister contrasted his actions with what he called the "nuts" plans to tax businesses announced by Miliband at last week's Labour conference. "It is nuts, frankly, to put up corporation tax. Jaguar Land Rover is now making world-beating cars, selling them all over the world, and Ed Miliband wants to put up their taxes. That is nuts."

Cameron acknowledged the use of the word "nuts" was controversial. He said: "I don't want – I am going to get into a huge argument with the mental health lobby, that is not what I want."

Cameron used more cautious language to criticise Miliband's plan to freeze energy bills for the first 20 months in office if he wins the 2015 general election. "I want low prices not just for 20 months, I want them for 20 years. So what we need to go is go to the reasons why these prices are going up in the first place – we have got to make these markets more competitive, we have got to make sure that companies behave themselves and put people on the lowest tariff and we are legislating for that.

"The problem with what Ed said was that it unravelled effectively within about 12 hours when he said he couldn't keep his promise … When you take his approach as a whole it is anti-business, it is anti-enterprise, it is saying to companies investing in Britain I am going to put up your taxes, take the jobs elsewhere."

The prime minister also confirmed:

• The Tories would not introduce a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m if he wins the next general election.

• Ministers will examine proposals to introduce a form of workfare. Cameron said: "This is something we need to look at and work out how to make sure that in all parts of our welfare system there is no more something for nothing."

• That he underestimated the opposition to the introduction of equal marriage. The prime minister said he fully the change.

But he added: "I don't think I expected quite the furore that there was. It has been clearly been very difficult for some people to take on and I completely understand and respect that. I'm not sure perhaps at the beginning we got across to people that this was about marriages that could take place in registry offices. This was not going to change what happened in your church, mosque, your synagogue."

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