Rachel Reeves is front running yet another class warfare policy in the press, this time suggesting everyone who lives in a home over £2m should have to pay 1% on anything above 2m.
First - I’m fine with this. I live in SW London and would probably have to pay some.
But I’m ONLY fine with it if everyone round the country does too. Meaning that it should be on the top 5% of homes by REGION (I’ll leave it to other people to argue what region means, all the data is there to do it).
We could happily sell our 4 bed home and move somewhere else in the country and buy a 10 bed castle. Or just buy another 4 bed home and stash the rest in the markets. TBH we might even do that if this comes in.
But people don’t want us to do this because it prices them out of local homes etc. Which is pretty much what this policy would do, price people out of local homes so they move elsewhere and prices up somewhere else instead.
But more than anything you can be far more rich on far less money in other parts of the country. So this isn’t a tax on property it’s a tax on the south.
As long as top X% of homeowners elsewhere are paying their 1% above their threshold I’ve no issues with this.
But people won’t agree with me as it’s easier to think it should always be “other people” who pay…. or will they?