Lib Dem conference: Pensions could boost home ownership, says Nick Clegg But Mr Clegg appeared to signal today that he did not expect the promised fairness to come in the form of a specific extra levy such as the mansion tax on £2 million-plus properties favoured by the party. Pressed to provide a single example of a new measure that could be introduced during this parliament, he conceded that "so far I have failed" to persuade David Cameron and George Osborne to accept a mansion tax. Mr Clegg dismissed news of text exchanges between senior Lib Dems and Labour figures, saying people got "wildly overexcited" about politicians talking to each other. "Over the last few weeks I have had lengthy conversations with Ed Miliband, David Miliband, Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, grown up politicians," he said. Talking about other things, talking about Europe, political reform. Talking about things which politicians always will continue to talk about. Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander spelt out more details of the policy announcement in an interview with the BBC's Sunday Politics. Under the pension scheme, people due a lump sum on retirement would be allowed to use that to underwrite mortgages for younger relatives, he said. There are a lot of people out there who already help their children with deposits. That happened to me when I bought my first home," Mr Alexander said. But there are an awful lot of parents out there who don't have any cash to help their children get on the housing ladder. But in many cases they will have built up a substantial pension pot. That is their only asset which they will able to, when they reach retirement age, release a tax free lump sum. What we want to do is for parents in that category (to be able to) use that lump sum, which they will get when they reach retirement age, to guarantee part of the mortgage, the deposit on that mortgage, precisely to help their kids or grandkids to get on the housing ladder. It is about intergenerational fairness. Mr Alexander also sought to reassure owners of homes worth more than £1 million that they are unlikely to be targeted by the taxman. It is targeted very much at those people whose affairs are risky. It is not going to mean that anyone who has got a home over £1 million gets a knock on the door from the taxman," he said. If your net worth is more than £1 million you will be within the population that the affluent unit is able to look at. But of course HMRC have a lot of information, they can identify particular groups, particular individuals where there are particular tax risks for example those with properties overseas. They won't be going to every single person in that group. Otto Thoresen, director general of the Association of British Insurers, sounded a note of caution over the planned help for homebuyers. He said: "We would want to look closely at the detail of the 'pension for property' scheme announced today by Nick Clegg. Pensions are designed to mature into a decent retirement income, not for other purposes. Any scheme which uses pensions as a guarantee must ensure that it does not inadvertently make the saver worse off when they retire. Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves said: "Nobody will be fooled by Nick Clegg's empty words on tax. This is the man who backed a £3 billion tax cut for millionaires in the Budget while asking millions of pensioners and families to pay more. There's nothing fair about a family with children paying an average £511 extra from changes the Government has brought in this year, while millionaires will get a £40,000 tax cut next year. Nick Clegg is the Deputy Prime Minister of this Government and he must take responsibility for its actions. After so many broken promises, people will judge the Liberal Democrats on what they do, not what they say.