Writing to the Evening Standard, Bob and his colleague said:
"Dear Sir,
As MPs representing London constituencies, we are very concerned about the effect of a new property tax being proposed by the Liberal Democrats.
Additional local property taxes would hit ordinary families and pensioners who have worked hard, saved carefully and paid their taxes. It would include those with large mortgages who are not otherwise capital-rich, and professionals who live in large shared houses in London. Pensioners now on modest incomes living in their long-standing family home would be hit the hardest. The revaluation process needed to impose this new tax requires inspectors to visit people’s homes, would take three years to complete, and cost taxpayers over a quarter of a billion pounds.
We believe there are much better ways to ensure that the most well-off in society pay their fair share in tax. The Lib Dem “mansion tax” would turn out to be a “granny tax” fuelled by the politics of envy. It would be another blow on top of the heavy burden of council tax which doubled under the last Labour Government.
It is costly, bureaucratic, and unfair: Government Ministers should resist this attack on those Londoners who have worked hard all their lives and done the right thing.
Yours faithfully,
Bob Neill MP
Mike Freer MP
Nick De Bois MP
Bob Blackman MP
Angela Watkinson MP
Matthew Offord MP
Andrew Rosindell MP
Angie Bray MP
Bob Stewart MP
Zac Goldsmith MP
Mark Field MP
Mary Macleod MP"