Badenoch pledges to abolish inheritance tax on family homes
In her closing conference speech in Birmingham, the Conservative leader promised couples an extra 1 million pounds of headroom and said a future Tory government would legislate so no one pays the tax on their home.
Kemi Badenoch pledged on Wednesday to abolish inheritance tax on family homes, closing the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham with a tax-cutting pitch she framed as a battle for the soul of the nation. She told delegates that the next Conservative government would, in her words, legislate so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home, and would let couples pass on an additional 1 million pounds without incurring the levy.
Under the current system, inheritance tax is charged at 40 per cent on estates worth more than 325,000 pounds, or above 500,000 pounds where a home is passed to a direct descendant. Mrs Badenoch said she would like to abolish the tax entirely when the Government could afford it. The levy is expected to raise about 14.7 billion pounds by 2030/2031 as rising property prices draw more estates into its net, according to House of Commons research cited by Reuters, which noted it is regularly named in polls as Britain's most disliked tax even though only about 5 per cent of wealthy estates pay it.
"I believe the people who work hard and save should be rewarded for that effort," she said. She argued that inheritance tax had become a burden on middle-class families rather than a levy on the very wealthy, telling the conference hall that ordinary families in every corner of the country were now caught by it.
The next Conservative government will legislate so nobody will ever pay inheritance tax on their family home.Kemi Badenoch
Her other main economic announcement was a plan to halve employers' national insurance for workers aged between 21 and 24, cutting the rate to 7.5 per cent. The Times estimated the measure would cost 2.3 billion pounds a year, save businesses an average of 1,545 pounds for each young employee, and create 33,600 jobs by the end of the decade, according to Conservative estimates. She also promised to reduce interest on some student loans, and said the package would be funded through a savings plan in which, she said, the party had identified more than 70 billion pounds of savings and would cut the deficit it inherits from Labour by more than 35 billion pounds.
The speech closed a conference at which the Conservatives tried to present themselves as an election-ready, low-tax alternative to Andy Burnham's Labour government, which sits third in the opinion polls. Mrs Badenoch admitted there was still much work to do to restore public trust. "People are looking through the shop window, they like what they see, but not enough of them are buying yet," she said. "We need to fix that."
She ruled out any pact with Reform UK, telling its voters they were welcome to come home to the Conservatives, and said every Tory candidate at the next election would make what she called a non-negotiable commitment to cut taxes.
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