Reeves' plan to tax houses over 500k

[FridayFeelingmidweek]

Just been reading news about Reeves's plan to tax https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/aug/18/rachel-reeves-stamp-duty-property-tax-council-tax

AIBU to already be worrying about living in the south east? Surely this will force people either to never move, or move away from SE/London.

I'm glad that there is finally something that isn't negatively affecting areas outside the SE but does she actually understand that 500k isn't much down here - 3 bed terrace at best.

the austerity measures have meant public services have never recovered.
the housing market, certainly where I am has become obscene and so out of reach for anyone normal now.

It’s no surprise that Labour are simply looking to take as much as they can from anyone who has anything.

What makes me sick is that they go for the low hanging fruit and then just piss it all away. No talk of large reform, which is what’s needed, and they just cave when their back benchers start threatening rebel.

@Closetoknowing because of housing costs.

https://ifs.org.uk/articles/drastic-times-need-drastic-action-breaking-50-year-tax-taboo

?

Won't this increase the wealth of London? If property taxes going to the council are based on property price, not the services that the council provides, then councils in areas with expensive but small houses, ie London, will get way more money for providing services for the same number of people.

No because the unequal funding to local authorities will move away from London. The article actually states that.

That assumes they can follow the repercussions of their fiscal policies to thei logical conclusion. So far they seem largely incapable of that.

The government spends on average 17k per person.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants coming to the UK per visa applications in recent years have been in in industries with low paid jobs. Assuming they earn 30k a year they will pay tax and national insurance of just under 5k. Being very generous and assuming that they spend 10k on vatable goods and services you could add another 2k to that (20% vat of 10k). So circa 7k tax paid. That is a 10k tax spending shortfall on average per migrant.

With 1m immigrants a year in recent years that's 10bn shortfall a year. In a decade from now the 1m immigrants from last year will have cost the UK £100bn.

If we continue to run immigration at a rate of circa 1m a year for ten years then the cost of those 10m people would be 100bn annually. We are on track to exceed these numbers.

I don't think those are small numbers and not every migrant will be working.

This is aside from the social and cultural change issues in communities that haven't asked for change but are having it forced on them.

Did you? That doesn’t change the comment you just made.No it wasn’t a ridiculous comparison at all and you are coming across as very indifferent.
There’s a big difference, in paying a mortgage, the bank, to paying a greedy landlord, who knows we’re in a houses crisis and they can charge whatever they choose.

The government spends on average 17k per person.

Where does that figure come from? It seems unfeasibly high to me.

Divide total government spending by British population and you get to it. It's also been quoted elsewhere.

@Closetoknowing we have high housing costs in this country? For lower incomes it takes up a higher proportion of your income. Increasing income taxes for lower earners just means paying more back in housing benefit and other benefits.

In the past when lower earners paid higher taxes they were not spending as much on housing.

I must be missing something, it doesn't seem to add up. That's 10k shortfall after 1 year with this massively simplistic view that doesn't take into account the number is high over a small amount that are much more complex - it's not actually 17k per person, that's an average.

But taking it at face value, it's 10k after 1 year, and profit from early in the second year onwards . . . . . .

@Letgoofmyblank Get rid of the income tax high marginal tax bands. So many people down tools when they near £100k of income - self employed especially - as there’s no point in earning more if you’re only keeping less than 40% of it.

This point keeps coming up, but I don't understand this.

Anyone with even a quantum of common sense would be putting all money above £100k into a pension fund (unless they are an extremely high earner, in which case money is no object).

How is it a profit?

I don't think you understand maths.

This is very interesting, please listen if you can!

But you can’t do that and be accurate. It’s nonsensical.

The overwhelming majority of immigrants coming to the UK per visa applications in recent years have been in in industries with low paid jobs.

Don't we still need this workers though eg in the NHS & social care?

Thank you, for sharing your actual experience.

Me too.

@FridayFeelingmidweek Seems to be a lot of anger about this on the thread, but ultimately, taxing wealth is the right thing to do.

Perhaps if previous generations had treated houses as... houses, instead of "investments," then this mess would not have happened.

A lot of the tension and anger in society solely boils down to the mess of the housing market. If house prices had risen in line with inflation, then the average house would only cost about £75k or so.

By the way; when your house goes up in value, you don't profit. That's because you don't sell it (as you need a place to live), and if you do decide to sell it... well, all other houses have gone up in price too. The ONLY people who benefit from expensive housing are the banks because they profit off the loans.

Immigrants are (and have been historically) net contributors to the UK economy.

https://www.davidsonmorris.com/immigrants-economic-contributions/

That's a pointless argument as the vast majority of migrants don't get visas for that type of work.

I wish it was more equal across the country. Westminster has the lowest council tax in the country. It must have some of the most expensive properties in the country. It don't seem right.