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.

It wouldn’t apply to people who’d already paid stamp duty.

I didn’t vote for these utter twats but they get more ridiculous by the day. I just wouldn’t ever move again.

also, ew council tax , this is not actually reflective of housing prices at all. I work in a London borough and the same house type there ( where the price would be half a million more for the same) is £1000 a year cheaper that why I pay in commuter belt. Local authorities set these and can now only rise by 5% a year unless there is a massive overhaul

Hmm, yes, well, we've already done that, and now have foreign owned energy, utilities and major infrastructure, for all the good it has done us. Expensive energy, water, and a dearth of infrastructure investment. I wouldn't be so quick to sell us out to the highest bidder.

I think they should go further. Rename the "poverty line" the "wealth line" and anyone who's above it is fair game.

Ps I recently read The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver (on a recommendation from MN!) and it may or may not have left me a bit jumpy...

I haven’t RTFT, so apologies if this has already been said, but property banding has very little to do with what you pay, as it varies so much from area to area. There may be property owners in, for example, Chelsea, with a band G mansion, paying less in CT than someone in a modest house in the NE. There has to be a fairer way of paying for local services - I believe it should be on ability to pay, ie income. Or a rate for everyone…… But that was ‘poll tax’, and as we know, wildly unpopular with those who suddenly were required to pay up.

A PP mentioned that properties were ‘banded’ a long time ago, and, where a row of houses were identical when built, were all in the same band. Since that time, many will have been hugely extended, and possibly occupied by numerous working people. The banding has stayed the same, and is it fair that they collectively pay the same CT as the one original small property occupied by an elderly pensioner couple? I don’t think it is.

A property near me was previously owned by a disabled person, and their banding reduced from D to C. Now it has been extended and improved, and is occupied by 3 working adults and a pensioner (4 bedrooms/3 bathrooms), and is still band C. The ability to pay, PER HOUSEHOLD, is far greater than before, yet nothing is done to reverse the banding.

Indeed. Any time she comes up with another fucking incompetent scheme I just think we ought to fast forward to the u-turn. I know no one on mn weeps for private school parents struggling with vat which we are but for us it’s an additional 700 a fucking month. We are desperately trying to hang on while my 14 year old with autism, adhd, low cognitive function and Tourette’s finishes GCSEs. But not sure wf will be able to make it. I feel very bitter tbh. Screwed at every turn and already things were a strain. I can’t see a future for us in the uk. Thankfully my DCs are dual cuts with my home country and qe are here now and have meetings with schools here to try and see what our options are.

They have huge natural resources that they are mining/extracting To compare, we would have to start opening every mine up, reopen the North Sea and start searching for more sources, and start fracking. Basically, drill baby drill. Then we would have to open up every metal processing plant that has been mothballed. The nuclear facilities would have to be cranked back up to provide the energy of course because we don’t have the hydroelectric capacity that Sweden and Norway do, but even Sweden still uses predominantly coal and coke to fuel its steel furnaces. Sheffield would have started producing steel goods again. Swedens iron ore industry accounts for 8%of exports even though only 3% GDP. Much of the value add is in mining engineering machinery, cook-wear etc.

Britain has decided to not do that and be a service economy. Hence why we have lots of people out of work, because they aren’t able to competently or competitively work in such a job.

They are not imposing this policy yet but opening up a discussion, as a grown up government ought to do, though I'd excuse you for not being used to such consideration in the Johnson era in particular, with our own brand of toddler clown in charge.

Yes, this is what happens when there is no true choice for the electorate. Many people I know voted Labour to prevent Con winning again not because they agree with Labour. And for those who are nostalgic for the conservatives, because they were allright, do not forget it was those corrupt and downright criminal conservatives who brought on the shit show that we are living trough now. They delapidated public assets, misused public money and allowed public services to deteriorate beyond repair and their ongoing bad policies pushed house prices to unimaginable levels. The biggest problem in this country is the lack of accountability for people in power. There should be criminal charges to the individual for those who do what the torries did. Right now we have a system whereby politicians say anything to get in power and after they do whatever they want even if they do not have a mandate for it. And there go another 5 years and so on. There was never a better example for the boiling frog syndrome than the British public and their slipping back into victorian style living conditions.

There is nothing grown up about them! None of their policies are actually for the people!! They just continue to screw over the hard working people in the middle. Nothing is well thought out. It’s a total shit show.

No they do not, as well you know.

Individual workers do, they have to opt in to party funding and to be a union member n the first place.

Businesses that fund the Tories? shareholders and workers have no such say.

HUH?! Who said anything about selling our utilities?? I would rather if you didn’t put words in my mouth. Selling and privatising our infrastructure and precious assets is indeed the biggest mistake we have done.

Privatising assets like water and rail etc is not going to bring foreign currency into the country as it’s recycling money that’s within the UK. It’s only putting money in the shareholders’ pockets.

What I mean about bringing in foreign businesses is to bring in digital and IT expertise/cutting edge tech/ online gaming etc over here so that we can make and sell their products across the world to bring money into the country.

I'm sorry but I don't understand why that would be the case.

Let's take an example of an elderly person in a large house worth £600k who wants to downsize to a more manageable house worth £400k.

Today, that elderly person would have to pay £10k upfront in stamp duty on the purchase of the £400k house and the people buying their £600k house would have to pay £20k upfront in stamp duty.

Under the proposed system, nobody would pay any stamp duty upfront (presuming that it was their only home). The elderly person would then face no further charges as the house is worth less than £500k. The people who bought the £600k house would then have to pay £540 per year (instead of the £20k upfront)

Reeves is completely out of her depths and coming up with one ridiculous idea after another...

I voted Labour but I am staggered at this government's incompetence.

500K is just the cost of an average home in London and many places in the South East, not a luxury. People don't have a choice.

Council tax is already astronomical considering what we get in return (sod all...).

All that this government has done so far is strangled growth by adding to the tax burden for small business who already were struggling, killed the job market, victimise pensioners and disabled people and create an atmosphere where everyone is just fed up and angry with the mess this country is in.

The first thing Starmer needs to do is get rid of Reeves and change course before it is too late.

Which in itself is a disaster. Social mobility is already severely impaired, add that and it will create so many more problems. And probably will bring even more unsustainable house price rises instead of stabilizing.

Until we have leadership that isn’t so tribalist we won’t progress. Many decisions are based on a particular ideology rather than what is the right decision (in terms of tax receipts).
This labour government is weak and the perfect example of the tail wagging the dog. The WFA and benefits u turns prime examples. The chancellor crying at the dispatch box. Decisions changed because sections of society don’t like it. It’s like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.
We need a government with a well thought out plan and the discipline to implement it.
Do I think this is it - I don’t know - I’d need to see the full detail though I have doubts. I certainly have no confidence in labours ability to implement it though.

This thread highlights the north - south / rich - poor divide in this country yet again. There is so much animosity and resentment.

Theu haven't made any tax changes to affect individuals yet. It's good to have political stability and no constant chopping and changing and fighting over Brexit which had absolutely tanked the country and economy in the last ten years. The last Government's legacy on income tax is that we are paying more than ever, but with no levelling up (quite the reverse, laying whole areas to waste and ideological austerity) and no decent public services to show for it, as they gave all the money to corrupt mates making PPC, or ferry companies with no ferries. I'm not hopeful though as the last lot created the conditions for the right wing nobends to flourish. God help us if they take over, even in coalition.

@Another2Cats I might have to read the article again, I am confused..I thought the new Tax was on the SALE of their property over £500K, totally separate from Stamp Duty

Agreed, the recent u turns show that the backbenchers are running the country now.

Opposite actually. My mum put her WFA towards a £4k mountain bike last year. She’s still getting WFA this year. Her income might be low but her outgoings? Food, council tax, utilities, oh and mountain bikes. She thinks it’s a farce that she gets a WFA. I agree.

The north isn't poor - it's not as simplistic as that. It's pretty patronising to Northerners to look at it that way. Neither are Southerners all rich - certainly not in terms of disposable income.

Er yes they do!
Starmer’s cabinet received more than £500,000 in donations alone from lobbyists, hedge funds and private equity firms connected to the private healthcare sector since 2023.
KEIR Starmer and three members of his Cabinet have received more than £1 million from casino bosses, on top of tens of thousands in freebies from bookies, records show.

It is underfunded compared to South, especially in infrastructure and education

My god! I was so pissed off at the failure to properly address the soaring welfare bill too. There’s a reason for this. Our country has made it harder to claim job seekers allowance so the workshy just claimed to be too ill to work instead. Stats show many people hopping from job seekers to health related benefits. Yes lots of people ought to receive health related benefits. But there are also an awful lot who are simply shirking work and faking illnesses.