Lib Dems return from successful national conference

11.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 21st Sep 2008

Norwich Liberal Democrats have returned from the party's federal conference in Bournemouth. A team of Councillors, local party leaders and grassroot activists attended the five day event. During the conference the party committed itself to offering big tax cuts for struggling families.

In his maiden speech as leader Nick Clegg said the Lib Dems are now the only party that can deliver social justice and the only choice for anyone who wants a fairer Britain. The party have promised to reduce the overall tax burden for nine out of 10 families, describing the plan as the most "progressive and redistributive" ever put forward by a British party.

The Conference saw the launch of 'Make it Happen' the party's 'vision and values' paper. The paper, which received strong backing form party members, includes plans to:

• Deliver big tax cuts for people on low and average incomes paid for from taxing pollution and closing tax loopholes used by the rich

• Invest more in the education of the most disadvantaged children

• Deliver on an ambitious green agenda, including forcing energy companies to pay a large share of their windfall subsidy to help homes use energy more efficiently

• Protect civil liberties, scrapping ID cards and introducing a Freedom Law to get government off people's backs and keep personal data private

• Clean up and reform the political and voting system and bring an end to the influence of big money on politics.

Rosalind Wright, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Norwich City Council, commented:

"People are really beginning to feel the effects of the economic crisis and the rising cost of living in Norwich. The party has adopted plans to relieve families in the city from the rising burden of taxation, as well as making the taxation system fairer. We will scrap council tax and replace it with an alternative based on people's ability to pay and we will cut income tax to 16p. These will be funded by closing the loopholes used by the very rich to escape tax, taxing pollution and by cutting waste in public service spending, an example of this is the ID cards scheme, which will cost around £5 billion and will not improve security."

The Conference also discussed issues that the party has been campaigning on in Norwich. The Conference noted the e-petition proposal put forward by the City Council Group earlier this year, whereby residents will be able to petition the council online. The Conference also supported the idea of increasing investment in the rail network in the region and raised concerns about the use and security of data held by local and national government.