SOMERTON MP David Heath is fully supportive of the Liberal Democrat proposal to introduce a fairer tax system.

Mr Heath, speaking from the LibDem party conference at Blackpool this week, pledged his backing to the campaign ahead of a key not speech entitled 'fairer taxes, not higher taxes.'

"I am firmly supportive of the central Liberal Democrat message being fairer taxes; not higher taxes," he said.

"A tax system should be simpler, more progressive, more decentralised, more environmentally focussed - and should lift many people on low incomes out of tax altogether.

"One unfair tax is Council Tax. It penalises pensioners and low income families. I talk to many people at my surgeries who find it a struggle to pay their Council Tax.

"The Government's recent U-turn on the roll-out of the revaluation of bands for Council Tax shows they know Council Tax is unfair but have no plans to deal with it. The Liberal Democrats do know how to deal with Council Tax: we must scrap it.

"The delay in revaluation is good as it will avoid a massive council tax increase in Somerset where homes have vastly increased in price over the last ten years.

"However, the problem remains that at some point Council Tax will have to reflect current house prices and that means we have a huge tax time bomb just waiting to go off."

And Mr Heath added: The only right thing to do would be to scrap Council Tax, reform the system and ensure that those on lower incomes are not paying as much as those in a high tax bracket."