Mansion tax will be increased to offset scrapping the 50p income tax rate, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said. Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable have both said high-value home owners should pay a levy on their properties in exchange for the scrapping of the 50p top income tax rate, reported the Financial Times.

During last week’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne revealed that the 50p tax was temporary and that he would look at dropping it.

Clegg and Cable said that they are fully in support of those plans, but added that people still wanted the wealthy to pay their “fair share”.

Clegg told the FT that the coalition would not revive the previous Liberal Democrat policy of a 1% mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m, but added: “It could be a range of things: the way the council tax system is structured, the way Stamp Duty is structured.”

The confirmation of the changes to the tax on high-value properties came after Cable dropped hints during radio interviews over the weekend.

“The emphasis may well have to shift from high marginal rates of tax on income, which are undesirable, to taxation of wealth, including property, and the Chancellor said as much as that in his Budget,” Cable told Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.

Asked whether this meant his levy on homes worth £2m or more could be introduced, he said: “You need to have a proper base for taxing property and I’m sure that’s one of the things we’re going to have to look at as we change away from these very high marginal rates.”