Ed Miliband has plans to implement a mansion tax which will cost wealthy home owners an average of £12,000 each to fund the NHS and hire 36,000 new doctors, nurses, midwives and care workers.

The labour leader used his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference to announce a £2.5 billion-a-year “time to care fund” which will ease the “unprecedented financial pressure” on the NHS.

The fund will be used to ensure that there are “safe” levels of staffing in hospitals and help improve access to GPs and other health services in the community.

Mr Miliband will generate £1.2 billion with a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2 million. The tax will be set so that the most expensive homes face the biggest levy.

According to Savills, the estate agents, a total of 97,000 homes in Britain would face the tax, meaning that the average levy will be £12,000.
Another £1.1 billion will come from a strict approach on tax avoidance, including forcing hedge funds to pay taxes on shares and closing a loophole which enables companies to move profits out of the UK to avoid corporation tax.

Labour will also introduce a new levy on tobacco firms, based on a policy introduced by President Barack Obama in the US, which will force tobacco firms to make a larger contribution to the costs of tobacco-related illnesses. The levy is set to raise £150 million.

The taxes will be used to fund 20,000 new nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 new home-care workers and 3,000 new midwives.
Mr Miliband said:

“We need to make sure there is an NHS there when we need it. Our plan for Britian’s future means we will create a world-class 21st century health and care service because a hospital is only as good as the services in the community.”

“If people can’t get to see their GP, if they can’t get the care they need at home, they end up in hospital when that could have been avoided. That’s bad for them and it costs billions of pounds.”

“Those services are creaking, and we know there are huge future pressures facing the NHS. We are going to have to transform the way the NHS works in the years ahead.”

“Conference, it is time to care about our NHS so that doctors, nurses, care workers, midwives are able to spend proper time with us – not be rushed off their feet.”

“The NHS is sliding backwards under this government. They are privatising and fragmenting it. Just think what it would look like after five more years of this government. It is not in safe hands.”

“We built the NHS, we saved the NHS, we will repeal their health and social care bill and we will transform the NHS for the future.”

Source: The Telegraph
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