The paper was written nearly 2 years ago, to inform the Lib Dem Tax Commission discussions. Whilst last year's TC, chaired by Mike Williams, made excellent progress staking out the 'route map' to UK 21st century LVT which my paper outlined, the grass has been allowed to grow around those stakes this year, with Dick Newby in the chair. Hardly any of the supporters of LVT attended TC meetings (there were other unrelated aspects of tax policy to be developed as well) and when the scheduled meeting on domestic property taxes came, Newby 'ambushed' me and ended the discussion before it had even begun. It appears that 'higher powers' within the Party decided months ago that taxing homes was something which Lib Dems must not do, the excuse being that it 'confuses the Axe The Tax' (scrap Council Tax) message. Yet there is no polling evidence that 'fairer property taxes' are less popular than taxes on earnings (of either labour or capital).

The only possibility of forcing a debate at this year's Lib Dem Conference on LVT is to table an amendment to the Motion in support of the TC report  (which doesn't mention property tax at all, except to flesh out existing policy on replacing Business Rates with Site Value Rating). The main purpose of getting this paper updated and printed now is to enable it to reach as many Conference voting reps as possible in time for that debate. Prior to that, using this online version, we have to collect signatures in support of the ALTER/LVT amendment being debated at all.

It will cost me £3000 to get the paper printed and I would appreciate any contributions, either donations or pre-paid orders of copies. It will probably have a cover price of around £10 and I will take £5 for orders of 10 or more.