Finance Bill

I wish to draw on a personal experience, which, although not directly relevant, is sufficiently relevant to illuminate our debate. My grandmother, who married Mr. Browne, was called Miss Gray—we are a rather monotone family. She was the oldest of four children and she died in 2000 in the house in which she was born in 1913. There were four children—two boys and two girls. Both sons were killed in the second world war and their names are on the war memorial in the church near the house, and my grandmother and her younger sister, my great aunt, survived. They continued to live in the house in which they were born until the day that they died. My great aunt died more recently. My grandmother married Mr. Browne and that is why the example is not directly applicable. However, I wanted to make the case because it is a perfect example of the sort of people whom the new clause would assist. Many women of that age did not get married and had to make different arrangements after the second world war that they would not have had to make in other circumstances, if such a seismic disruption to society's normal development in the United Kingdom had not occurred between 1939 and 1945. Those women made exceptional arrangements. Many were sisters who lived initially with their parents and then, when the parents died in the 1950s and the 1960s, lived together in the houses in which they had been born or brought up. The full implications are felt only when one sister dies many years later—the social legacy of the second world war has lasted many decades. Sisters in those circumstances are aghast that the inheritance tax burden should apply to them. There is therefore a compelling case for the new clause. The Economic Secretary said in her intervention on the Conservative spokesman that inheritance tax would apply only to those who lived in what she implied was a posh house, which is worth more than £700,000. I appreciate that the number of houses that are worth that sum is falling by the day. This Government are perhaps trying to tackle the problem of the inheritance tax burden in their unique way. There are probably betters methods, but they are doing their best. The threshold is not yet as high as £700,000, but the moral case is no different for sisters who were born in a house that is now worth £800,000 from that for those living in a house worth £600,000. They did not choose to be born in a house of a specific value—it is their home, the place in which they have lived for many decades, and they expect to live there for the rest of their lives. I urge the Economic Secretary not to regard this as a wedge issue, with the Labour party playing to a core constituency and saying, ““It doesn't really matter because we're only talking about rich people. They're the sort of people that the Conservatives speak up for and we can distinguish ourselves from them by saying that our priority is not to help rich old people but other groups in society.”” In the case that we are considering, people in a house now worth £700,000 are just as worthy of support, compassion and assistance as those whose houses are worth a different amount.