To think an annual property tax is incredibly unfair?

My understanding of council tax is that it broadly pays for local services such as bin colllections, grass cutting, social care, civic administration, libraries etc. Not sure I want to subsidise these services in another area because I happen to live in a high housing cost area. As OP says I already have to pay a much greater cost to live in this area, SE born here so not moved for work etc and therefore have a much lower disposable income.

💯 agree. And social housing isn’t limited to council houses that I remember from my childhood. I know of people living in housing trust owned social housing in UNBELIEVABLE areas in London, far more than even high earners could afford to rent let alone buy.

No initiative exists.

Yes because people can just up sticks and move just to make their tax cheaper not taking into account their jobs, commuting costs, family. 🙄 ridiculous to suggest you can just sell up move somewhere else.

In my case ill end up pay over £100 more per month on a single income contributing far more than a household of 2 working adults for the same services. 👏 yes completely fair..sure...

divine right of kings, innit

Buckingham palace pays a lower council tax than a 3 bed semi in Blackpool. Tell me why that is fair?

It’s 0.48% per year that has been suggested. If you have bought your house since 2014 when affordability checks were brought in you have been tested up to 3% interest rate increase so most people should be able to afford 0.48% particularly after council tax payments are removed. I think it’s a better system than the current one and if you are particularly wealthy and don’t want to pay you can always downsize or move area, at least you won’t have to pay stamp duty !

And yes I do think that people in London have far better services, tube, bus network, night buses. Most areas outside of London have abysmal services so I don’t feel sorry for you OP. You have good services and the ability to move to reduce this tax if you feel that strongly.

As another poster said “fair” is a completely nebulous concept and almost impossible to measure.

But eventually you pay your mortgage off and end up with a massive asset. But under the current system you then don't want to sell that massive asset because selling it is expensive. So you never really get the value out of the asset when you need it. Whereas under this system it would be much more attractive to sell and you'll actually benefit from your (much larger than you friend up north's) equity one day when you're ready to downsize. Which help the property market also.

If council tax was replaced by a property tax of .048% of the value of the property then I'd be MUCH better off! It would be 38% of what I currently pay. I would vote for that😄

Lol I would love to be on £100k too. Don't forget the current Labour government deem anyone earning over £40k as rich. You are no longer a working class person. So that sucks in hell of a lot of people. Imagine that you are considered wealthy if on £40k and have a house.

It is expensive though because you have to produce it up front here and agree the amount you paid is huge, ours will be more than my wages for a year

Yes but we’re not all on big salaries here in London.

I think it is unfair OP, unless it’s capped (or scrapped). Already mortgaged up the hilt for a tiny one bed, definitely not on a high salary, can’t afford to move. It’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario, & will leave a lot of people up shits creek if implemented. A massive change that wasn’t voted for - not very democratic.

This tax would cripple us as a family, rising from about £2k per year council tax to £4k at the very least based on the value when we bought our property 2 years ago when it was half derelict. We do live in London, and we are privileged to have bought when houses in our area were pretty cheap - prices have risen a lot since then and so we have benefitted but not through our doing. We've worked hard to do up properties ourselves to save money. But DP and I work in the creative industries / museums and don't actually earn very much. Those on lower incomes are being forced out of our area as property and rent is so expensive. This tax would also cripple many in our area which has pockets of wealth but a lot a poverty - people forget that London also has immense deprivation alongside the wealth - some (many?) people would be made homeless by this tax for sure.

Well of course it's not even a proposal at this stage is it - just one of Andy Burnham's pipe dreams. So it's a bit hard to comment.

BUT, in principle, I think we need a wealth tax. What's unfair is that our current taxation system relies heavily on taxing work - through NIC and Income tax. The truly wealthy hardly pay these taxes at all, yet they own fabulously expensive properties.

So, yes, in principle I am in favour of an annual property tax.

To the person complaining that Stamp Duty is preventing her moving - I would say the £43,350 stamp duty on a £700,000 house (in Scotland - it would be a lot less in England) is only just over 6%. Whereas the combination of Income Tax and NIC can take anything from 20%-40% of your paypacket - does that prevent you working?

It depends if it is restricted to those who own their homes rather than the value of the house you live in. Otherwise anyone who budgets, struggles and manages to get a mortgage will be penalised and those living in rental properties wouldn’t pay anything.

Stop stirring. @Itchthescratch

Nothing has been decided and if people paid purely on property prices SE councils would have vast amounts of funds and those in rural Wales very little. It's certainly worth looking at whether the council tax system can be improved though and local funding generally.

It is. It’s the normal Labour Party politics of envy.
Read George Orwell’s “The road to Wigan Pier”- It examines socialism and his conclusion is - socialists are not driven by love of the less fortunate or a desire to help them attain equality but generally by a hatred of the rich & those with more money & a desire to have their wealth themselves and be as rich as them.

Not really - it’s to replace council tax which is already based on house value but extremely outdated

It's another "chip on the shoulder" tax policy by Labour politicians to get at "the rich" even though house prices are based on where you live, not what you earn. Over time you can become asset rich but remain cash poor.

Council tax at the moment is incredibly unfair. City of London council charge a maximum of £2,659.12 for their council tax including houses worth millions. I pay more than this for my house in Lancashire which is a very normal 4 bed house.

Same old Labour, take from the worker to give to the shirker which ever way they can.

You mean like a Poll Tax? 😂

The problem with taxing land is that it would hit, say, someone with a plant nursery or riding stables. Good! some might say, You can build on it. But it would impoverish the landscape somewhat if every inch of spare land was built on in “desirable” areas.

That is the whole point. Land is the one thing you cannot make more of. The idea is that everyone rents from the state rather than private land ownership. This makes sense ideologically because collecting rents is not productive. So you just tax land. This leaves no distortion on the productive and innovative part of the economy.

It’s an interesting idea. Not sure what I think of it, but it is intellectually coherent. Just slapping a tax on home ownership isn’t. I don’t think Adam Smith or Milton Friedman would be impressed with this initiative as it stands.

Milton Friedman was well aware of these other taxes. He did advocate swapping over to LVT, but if it were to replace our other taxes, just imagine how large it would be!