Anyone else in the South East worried about Andy Burnham bringing in a land tax?

[Beachbooks]

With it looking likely that Andy Burnhan will be the next PM, I was interested to see if anyone else in London / the south east were worried about potential tax raises specifically around the land tax rather than stamp duty ?

A lot of my friends who live locally are worrying that he will make the land tax for the South East so high in proportion to other areas of the UK that it will be financially very difficult to afford but then also extremely difficult to sell!!

BTW we have very standard house and garden but we live in an expensive area

What? Why would it be a higher rate? Do you just mean because your houses are more expensive - because there are other expensive areas elsewhere in the UK?

It would be hilarious but I really don't think he'll do it. He's a Brownite. Soft left. He isn't Stalin.

I’m from the south east and YABU. You are aware that other areas of the country have expensive places too?

Why would it be hilarious ?

It's always easy to sell. You just drop your price until it meets the market.

There is no shortage of demand for property in the SE.

There are plenty of people who want properties but can't afford them though because sellers price their property too high.

If Burnham does increase land taxes or council taxes then it will be a good thing IMO. Owners of large houses get away with paying far too little compared with other properties and they are an easy group to tax, so why not.

Everyone keeps saying how Labour should tax the rich more, and here is one easy way of doing it.

Yes totally appreciate there are also expensive areas in the UK but the chat where I live seems to be that he will slap higher taxes on the SE and London just because it’s the SE and London

I’ve been thinking on this. A lot of central London is leasehold (even houses in some areas) so how would that work? Would freeholders pay it? Will landlords have to pay it on property they own rather than tenants? If the tax is super high in the SE those councils will be minted with epic services so it would disproportionately benefit the SE in terms of council funding and will mean cities with low land values like Middlesbrough or Blackpool will have very little money.

Here we go. In the coming weeks I wonder what other things 'lots of my friends' are supposedly going to be worried about Andy Burnham doing even though he's made no mention of doing them. A tax on Agas? A £10 surcharge on Waitrose deliveries to fund a Makerfield bypass? Forced conscription of fee-paying schoolkids? Slaughter of the firstborn (but only in the south-east)?

I have California based relatives and I like their land tax system. Its based on the sale price of your house when you bought it. So a house bought in 1970 has a low tax compared to a recent sale i a rising market. Much better than random bands or land prices.

Just put it on council tax and have a central government component to it.

So for example council tax increases by x% for band y, and x% goes to the government.

This is what I was hoping Reeves would do, but she completely bottled it.

The only issue with this is that house prices have gone up in my area that someone who bought their house 30+ years ago would be paying far less than someone who bought a flat today!

@PinkNBlueBunnies that’s a good point re the leasehold / freehold. I imagine funds would be diverted from the wealthier councils to the not so wealthy ones so would you even see the benefit of the additional tax?!

the chat where I live seems to be that he will slap higher taxes on the SE and London just because it’s the SE and London

Well those people clearly have no idea how laws are made in this country, so...

I don't think there's ever been anything like this before, has there? It's a bit of a weird thing for them to say, I'm not sure what their basis would be, other than hating lefties?

Well this apparently is exactly it “won’t absolutely nobody think of the poor people!”

I’m from Middlesbrough, they already have no money, I’m sure they’ll understand if it’s kept in the South - nothing would change.

😂

I live in the South East and have done all my life, and own property here.

I've not made owning property my entire financial planning approach, nor have I made it my entire personality.

So no, I'm not worried.

Those bloody Northerns… going “down south” eating pies and drinking Gravy, punishing the Middle Classes with extra taxes, to pay for Lard & Whippet racing

I’m paying £4000+ a year CT in the north for a 4 bed and receiving practically nothing in way of services in return. It’s about time London paid its fair share for all the wonderful things on offer there like excellent transport, museums and parks instead of owning a £2m house and paying £1200 a year. I’d welcome a land tax.

& just look see what Brown did with our gold😳🙄!???

No that’s terrible and would shaft new and first time buyers over those who bought their home for pennies 60 years ago

Council tax is ridiculous, but the percentage I read would be horrific. Outside London but still in SE, a nurse gets the same wage as an equivalent up north, but the houses are way cheaper. Not all salaries down here are high, but the houses are much more expensive than the equivalent elsewhere.

The south east and London are not synonymous. Where I live in the south east there is one of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK. The public services and opportunities are awful and council tax is still astronomically high.

His first policy will be free pies for the north and tax the South more. His first official reception at Downing Street with a foreign leader will have a menu of chips, babbies yeds and gravy, washed down with cand of fizzy vimto and pints of mild.

Not necessarily. Where I live, a 3 bed semi is about £500-600K. There will be parts of the south where they’ll be much cheaper, and parts where they’re a lot more.

Not all property in the north is cheap. I suspect lots of southerners would be shocked at how some places in the north aren’t a million miles from the prices where they’re living.