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 £2M house pays £1200 ct? If you look around in Europe, they either pay miniscule amounts compared to us or don’t pay it at all. The government should tax wealth and landowners (not small farmers) and certainly not wrack the middle classes further

Assuming he does become PM an election would be in around 2 years, hopefully that'll be the end of labour and he won't have time to implement it.

If you live in a £2million house in Westminster you pay £1200 council tax. It’s the absolute maximum you can pay there.

What, as some sort of penalty for being in the South? 😂

If the 'chat' round your way say it, it must be true. 🙄

Southerners must REALLY hate Northerners if you're thinking like this 😂

Get a grip OP.

Labour have managed to kick the aspiration out of the UK very swiftly.

Not to mention the fact they've created mass unemployment.

Much as you might not like it, it’s fiscally true and not open to debate. Facts are facts.

After 16 years of Oxford graduates fucking the country up, any change has got to be an improvement.

This says top band is £2095.70

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-bands-and-charges#bands-and-charges

Umm, any change? Really??

I don't care I'm stuck renting

I’m paying that for a 4 bed 40 miles from London and also have little access to services - the first bus leaves our village at 9.30am The commuter train line that I use is the most expensive in the UK. But Andy Burnham will wallop me with more tax because I live in “the South”. Expensive house prices does not equal low council tax and excellent public services. I compared the council tax bands in my area with council tax bands in Leeds. We are paying more for the same band.

Those are all in London. London does not equal “the South”. Many of us live outside London and pay the same or more council tax than those in the North. The area that I live in 40 miles from London has higher council tax than Leeds, for example.

I live 40 miles from London and pay £4k. My house isn’t in the top band and it’s not worth £2 million. Yes, some parts of London have very low council tax largely because they have a younger population which means that the adult social care costs are much lower for those areas. Older people move out to areas like the one I live in putting pressure on our services with the result that our council tax is the same or higher than areas in the North. You can’t justify higher property tax based on the situation in a few London boroughs.

Don’t forget ‘just because it’s the south’

That’s only part of the reason. Parking revenue is massive in Westminster so is its income from business rates.

So the scaremongering posts start already 🙄 The guy hasn’t even started yet.

FYI, LVT can include tax relief for primary residences and working farms.

You have all forgotten the true drink of the North ….. BURNHAM MUST BRING BACK SASS!!!

And that justifies people in the rest of the South paying even more council tax when they are already having to deal with high property prices and expensive commuting costs? It’s nonsense and people like you are being whipped into hysteria by politicians who love to pick on one group to win the favour of another.

Ah. “the chat where I live”. OK then.

It is the problem with a LVT.

In London the three bed terrace at ~£1m would be a below average value property in the rest of the UK. Utterly ordinary. But because it’s in London… higher taxes please!

On top of trying to fund the mortgage at 2-3x the monthly repayments…!

I live in the south. If this proposal is put in place we’ll be very slightly better off. Our council tax is currently stratospheric. Personally I’d have thought you’d want council tax payers in W1 to pay their share.

Ah, so you’re better off so that makes it a good policy! Talk about I’m all right Jack!

I’m actually very concerned about people in central London, including some single mum friends of mine, who are already struggling with huge housing and childcare costs. They can’t afford significantly higher council/property tax.

Many people have already paid huge amounts of stamp duty moving up the ladder - DH and I have paid approx £70k in total over several moves. We have more than paid our fair share and when you add £4k council tax on top per year there is no justification for us paying more.

Tbh, I don't worry about this too much even though I'm in London.

Realistically Labour have three budgets left. Unless they want to introduce some "mini budgets" but that would be difficult to sell. The last budget in 2028 should be about sweeteners.

LVT and any significant changes to council tax will take time to implement. They won't want to upset SE and London electorate in the last year (these are their best bases at present), so there might be a policy, but no implementation until after GE. And who knows how the power will look like in 2029.

You can't tax people with no money/assets.

If your friends have no more money they won't be able to pay it.

They are already being taxed huge amounts because they are “high” earners. Trouble is once they have paid their mortgage or rent and childcare costs, they don’t have a lot left to pay other bills, food and basic living costs. They are surviving, just about. They get no help because they are “rich”. Then I have friends in the North who are “poor” because they earn a lot less but so are their outgoings so they can afford regular holidays and other luxuries.

As a Northerner living in the South I detest this North South rhetoric being stirred up by the current Government and their followers. It’s just as bad as the anti-immigrant rhetoric being stirred up by other political parties.