Slapdown for new tax on homes

A PROPOSAL from a top government adviser to compel people to pay more tax the longer they stay in one home won a furious slapdown today from Gordon Brown and from Downing Street.

The plan came from the newly appointed chief economist at the Department of Health, Professor Barry McCormick. He said stamp duty should be levied on home sellers as well as buyers and that the rate should rise for each year of residence.

The aim, according to Professor McCormick, was to unfreeze the property market and encourage people to move around to find jobs. Ministers, when the notion emerged today, saw it as a recipe for electoral suicide and Downing Street and the Treasury, visibly alarmed, moved swiftly to crush the idea.

A Treasury spokesman said: 'Tax policy is made by the Treasury and the Treasury is not looking at this. It is not a government proposal. It is not even proposed by someone who is currently working for the Government. We are not considering it.'

The Prime Minister's spokesman dismissed the proposal as ' complete blether', adding: 'The Treasury is not looking at this, neither is anyone in Downing Street.'

The Health Department said that Professor McCormick, currently 'on holiday', is not due to start work in Whitehall until next Monday. They confirmed he had aired his idea at a seminar organised by the Cabinet Office but insisted that he had been speaking purely in a personal capacity.

The professor's links with government are, in fact, rather closer than Whitehall cared to admit today. He has been a part-time 'academic adviser' to the Treasury for the past year, alongside his main job as economics professor at Southampton University and a noted specialist in the labour market.