---

Finance Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point, but I do not want to follow too far down that particular road for this reason: I am not justifying my position on inheritance by virtue of the fact that high house prices have made what is inherently wrong more obviously wrong. I want to argue something much more fundamental, which is that a society that wants to encourage stability and enterprise is a society in which the ability of families to hand on money and a home is a crucial component of that stability. Those who believe in a property-owning democracy should not believe in a one-generation society. Those of us for whom the family is the most important element in our lives—who support marriage, want the state of marriage to be important, and want married couples to work together, so that their children can inherit from them—should be encouraged, not discouraged.