Darling slams Tory housing plans

The chancellor of the exchequer has denounced Conservative Party plans to raise the threshold for inheritance tax.

[UKPRwire, Tue Oct 09 2007] Alistair Darling said that the Tories have got their sums wrong and will not be able to follow through with the promise.

Speaking on The Politics Show on BBC One, Mr Darling said that home buyers will be left disappointed if the Conservatives come to power.

"If you go to somebody and say, 'I'm prepared to give away lots of money', people say, 'well that sounds very nice'; the second question, though, is how are you going to pay for it?" he said.

"The problem that the Tories have got is they have made a specific promise, they say they are going to get money from taxing non-domicile people, they have inflated the numbers and when you ask them where their source of information is as to how many domicile people, it turns out it is an article in a Sunday newspaper.

"That's no way to make economic policy," added the chancellor.

Mr Darling went on to say that homeowners would actually end up in a worse financial situation if the plans were introduced as interest rates would rise and so too would mortgage payments.

Julian King of National Homebuyers says, "An election may be months and months away, we are at the point where politicians are too busy scoring political points to actually make a concerted effort to improve the housing situation.

"As the UK's leading quick property purchase firm, we speak to thousands of people every month who need a quick sale of their property. Many of these are facing financial difficulties.

"We do expect the political argument to continue until Mr Brown goes to the people" says Mr King.

Mr King is a director of National Homebuyers, the UK's leading fast property purchase firm, guaranteeing a quick property sale for vendors who need a quick sale. The company also offers a Sell and Rent Back solution so that no moving home is necessary.