We returned this week from Parliament’s long summer recess.

I used the break to give some thought as to the role my party should be playing in the British political system.

Letting fees are an unfair cost pushed onto tenants by greedy landlords.

In an interview with The Guardian, I set out our ambitious plan to fix the UK’s broken immigration system, end the Conservatives’ hostile environment and celebrate the positive impact immigration has had on the United Kingdom.

Over the weekend, member Ruby Chow started a thread on Twitter asking Lib Dems who the top ten most important people in the party were to them.

What followed was a thread full of love for Lib Dems across the country who have encouraged, supported or inspired others.

The report – “Taxing Land, Not Investment” – calls for the abolition of business rates and its replacement with a tax on land values, the Commercial Landowner Levy (CLL). The levy would remove buildings and machinery from calculations and tax only the land value of commercial sites, boosting investment and cutting taxes for businesses in nine out of ten English local authorities.

This ground-breaking research was led by founder of the Lib Dem Business and Entrepreneurs Network (LDBEN) Andrew Dixon, in response to mounting concerns about the negative impact of business rates on struggling high streets and the wider economy.  

Key recommendations from the report include:

• Business rates should be abolished and replaced by a Commercial Landowner Levy based on the value of the land only
• The levy should be paid by owners rather than tenants
• Non-residential stamp duty should be scrapped to improve the efficiency of the commercial property market
• Commercial land should be taxed regardless of whether the buildings above it are occupied; the tax should also apply to unused and derelict commercial land