Nick Clegg: 'we'll stick to our guns on mansion tax' The eye wateringly lucrative assets so often hoarded at the top. We still live in a society where, for so many people. How much you earn can never compete with how much others own. Our tax system entrenches that divide. And we need to be bold enough to shift the burden right up to the top. I know the Mansion Tax is controversial, but who honestly believes it is right that an oligarch pays just double the Council Tax of an average homeowner even if their house is worth one hundred times as much? And who seriously thinks we would kill aspiration through a levy on the 0.1 per cent of the population who own £2 million pound homes? The Mansion Tax is right, it makes sense and the Liberal Democrats will continue to make the case for it. We're going to stick to our guns. He said that coalition plans to raise the income tax allowance to £10,000 should be accelerated to tackle the growing economic crisis. Ministers must go "further and faster" as the pressure on household finances reaches "boiling point," the Deputy Prime Minister will urge. Should income tax allowance be raised to £10,000 in the Budget as Nick Clegg suggests? The Liberal Democrat leader's pledge follows official figures released yesterday that show the British economy is shrinking and risks a double-dip recession. Mr Clegg said in a speech: "In just three years, real household incomes have fallen by some 5 per cent - one of the biggest squeezes since the 1950s, since the records began. Household budgets are approaching a state of emergency and the Government needs a rapid response. "I want the Coalition to go further and faster in delivering the full £10,000 allowance, because the pressure on family finances is reaching boiling point," Mr Clegg said. On BBC breakfast, Mr Clegg said that basic rate taxpayers "need help quickly as they're facing high bills, they've had to face very high energy and electricity bills." He apparently reckons he can fund his tax cut by closing loopholes for the rich: "The UK's tax system cannot go on like this - with those at the top claiming the reliefs, enjoying the allowances, paying other people to find the loopholes while everyone else pays through the nose." Mr Clegg told Daybreak that the Government should act quickly to help people who work and "do the right thing by themselves" to keep more of the money they earn. We've heard a lot over the last few days and weeks about fairness at the top, executive pay, fairness at the bottom, benefits and so on. This is about delivering fairness to the middle, to those millions of people who are basic rate taxpayers who aren't wealthy enough to be able to pay accountants to fiddle the system, not poor enough to be only dependent on benefits, who need help. "They need help quickly as they're facing high bills, they've had to face very high energy and electricity bills, and I think the Government should - we already are - but we should try and do more for exactly these people," he said.