Finance Bill

My point was that the overall costs would be far larger than simply the cost of accepting the particular amending provision. We have not costed it in detail because we have not looked at the number of long-term relationships that would be covered. My point was simple—that the cost of implementing the amending provision might be low, but that by conceding the principle, we could open ourselves up to far wider costs. That is a secondary point, however, as it is the unique institution of marriage and its gay equivalent that makes the point of principle here. My hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) spoke extremely well. He mentioned the issue of where we draw the line and he was right technically when he said that if we accepted the new clause, it would apply to any siblings who had lived together for any period of 10 years at any stage of their lives, which I am not sure was the intention behind what I guess was a probing provision. Let me move on to the compassionate issues. We have heard examples in respect of which our hearts automatically go out to elderly people who obviously do not want to be forced to leave the home that they have lived in for many decades, perhaps even for the whole of their lives. Let me try to tease out some examples. I said earlier when I intervened on the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) that once the limit was raised in 2010-11, the estate would have to be worth more than £700,000 before inheritance tax even became an issue. Let us think about an example where a house is worth £800,000—a round number, which makes it easier to work with. Let us suppose that such a house is owned equally by two siblings who have lived in it for a long time, perhaps having inherited it from their parents some time ago. If one of the siblings dies, the limit in 2010-11 will be £350,000, so inheritance tax will kick in on the difference between that and £400,000—namely £50,000. It kicks in at 40 per cent., so the inheritance tax bill is £20,000. Two things could then happen. The bill could be paid over 10 years, which would mean £2,000 a year. I do not know how that equates to the council tax bill on the house, but it might be possible for the individual to meet the additional amount. If not, various options would be available. If even an extremely elderly person was facing a charge of £20,000 and owns an asset of £800,000, it would be fairly easy to remortgage to get the necessary amount. Although on compassionate grounds I have sympathy for the individual on losing their elderly sibling, I am not sure that there are grounds for the state to intervene. I want to touch on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West about deferring the charge, even beyond phasing it for 10 years. In a sense, by remortgaging to get the capital required, a person is using the private market to do exactly that. With regard to the extremely exceptional circumstances of an individual in a house worth about £800,000 who is unable to access any of those possibilities, the HMRC inheritance tax manual allows situations involving genuine hardship or serious difficulty to be considered on a case-by-case basis. In extreme cases, therefore, there is a certain amount of flexibility, which would include postponing the payment of all or part of the tax due. Given the figures involved, however, there will not be many such extreme cases. The hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire said that the subject under consideration affects ““average families””—he used that phrase. The median house price in England and Wales is £180,000, so I do not know what his definition of average is, or what the average house price is in his constituency, but from where I am standing, a property worth £700,000 is in no way average.