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

@suburban yes it would. Any proposed legislation has to go through a lengthy process of debate and scrutinisation in both Houses of Parliament before it becomes an Act and therefore part of our law.

Thank you, it does worry me, I’d rather continue to pay the council tax

Here’s some calcs

£600k hse = Tax £2,880
£800k hse = Tax £3,840
£1mil = Tax £4,800
£1.25mil = Tax £6000
£1.5mil = Tax £7,200
£1.75mil = Tax £8,400
£2mil = Tax £9,600
£2.5mil = Tax £12,000
£3mil = Tax £14,400
£5mil= Tax £24,000

Of properties between £800k and £1mill

Property Types: In high-value boroughs such as Kensington & Chelsea or Westminster, this budget typically buys a flat or a small terraced house.
In counties like Surrey or Buckinghamshire, it generally commands a large detached family home

Of properties between £1.5mil and £3mil

Prime London & Urban Areas (e.g., Kensington, Chelsea
large period conversions, lateral apartments and smaller news houses. paying for central location and proximity to amenities rather than large acreage.

Suburban Locations (e.g., Surrey, Cheshire, Buckinghamshire): Budgets in this range command detached family homes. These properties often feature 4 to 6 bedrooms and multiple reception rooms

Rural & Coastal Regions (e.g., Cotswolds, Devon, Norfolk) buyers can purchase large houses, equestrian estates or larger coastal properties

Specialist & Historical Properties: This price tier is also where buyers enter the market for the majority of Listed historical properties

The proposal will have a negative impact on areas dominated by higher value properties
impacting for example
communities
and schools which will become useless with families no longer able to afford the yearly tax.

Our heritage properties also will be severely impacted with those willing to take on the maintenance cost and uplift in bills of Listed buildings largely priced out by the additional cost of Burnhams tax

From Savills

‘ There are an estimated 655,000 residential properties in England valued at £1 million or more. 1]

This means roughly 1 in 45 homes

The market is heavily concentrated in the south, with approximately 80% of these homes located in London and the South East. 1, 2]

The breakdown of £1 million-plus homes across English regions: 1]

London: ~340,600 homes (about 1 in 11 properties)

South East: ~151,600 homes (about 1 in 28 properties)

East of England: ~58,400 homes

South West: ~40,700 homes

West Midlands: ~21,600 homes

North West: ~20,400 homes

Yorkshire and The Humber: ~11,900 homes

East Midlands: ~9,100 homes

North East: ~2,700 homes 1, 2]

London schools have already seen huge falls in rolls due to birth rates & young people priced out of London.

https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/news-and-press-releases/2026/sharp-decline-london-pupil-numbers-puts-school-standards-risk

Agree
but not a justification to knowingly make the situation far worse

With those sort of figures and the onus on landlords to pay I think we all know the cost will be diverted to tenants aswell

I prefer an annual tax to another huge chunk of stamp duty.

I can see if your older and didn’t pay much for your property that has now exploded in value you would be against this. But for younger people who are stung by stamp duty it’s less prohibitive.

It’s 27 years since we bought our house and according to @BrownTroutBluesAgain’s calculations we’ll be paying about £600 less. What’s to be unhappy about?

Many people will pay less
As will we ( about £1k)
Im still against the policy because it’s not about me

Its about a fair society and protecting and supporting all communities not just my own.

I want a fair society too but that isn’t the current one where Westminster council tax payers in multi million properties are paying about a third of the council tax that someone in a semi in Blackpool is.

King Charles is - thats why he is moving out of Buckingham Palace.

Agree
However
That doesn’t mean we price the population out of entire areas of the country
or
indeed certain building types throughout it

Stamp duty stifles home ownership and the market moving. I agree it should go but these figures are eye wateringly unaffordable for many of the 655,000 properties that will be affected
Perhaps we need to build an extra 655,000 properties on top of those needed for our growing population before this is introduced do people have somewhere to move to.
Property prices can’t decrease so much to make more expensive properties affordable year on year, we’d have a massive crash affecting everyone

@Blossomtoesthat’s you though, you aren’t everyone…

If builders and wealthy landowners are contributing their share, that seems fair to me.

More entities are being brought under the tax umbrella. Westminster and other rich areas of London will no longer get away with paying a lesser absolute amount of CT than people in Blackpool, the most deprived LA in England.

How is this not fair?

Exactly

Because the price model being touted by Fairer has a cliff edge of unafordability likely to affect 655,000 homes

Taxing land hoarders ie developers who hold on to land whilst they wait for a sellers market, is one small upside of this policy though

Fix Westminster then. Don’t make tens of thousands of other families in other parts of London and the South who are already paying huge amounts of council tax pay even more.

Agree
Although looking at the figures it won’t be just London and the South

East of England: ~58,400 homes
South West: ~40,700 homes
West Midlands: ~21,600 homes
North West: ~20,400 homes
Yorkshire and The Humber: ~11,900 homes
East Midlands: ~9,100 homes
North East: ~2,700 homes about:blank 1, 2]

and
We will lose the ability ( whether people care or not ) to safeguard our listed heritage
One reason many tourists visit the country !

@BrownTroutBluesAgain , @Boohoo76

We can only see what any actual legislation will say. Labour has many London MPs and IMO they will be sensitive to this concern.

IMO there should be a very long adjustment period. Generally however, property prices reflect desirability so over time the usual theory is that LVT rates should become uniform. People who don’t find London desirable will move out, stop moving in, etc.
People who want London’s world class advantages will eventually pay a corresponding LVT. That’s how it works elsewhere.

Council tax is a regressive tax that needs sorting.

The reason it is so regressive is that it was priced back in 1992 by a Tory government. The Tories actually wanted people in large houses to pay proportionately less. Then of course the rise in house values since then has made it even more regressive.

A tax based on a % of property value is far fairer.

Some changes in taxation are always going to affect a small proportion of the population negatively. But in this cast the vast majority are going to pay less, and the richest few pay more. They still will have gained huge amounts in housing equity over the years, and benefited significantly from the government holding taxes too low for too long.

I was using the “South” loosely. I am 40 miles from London in rural Essex, I’m technically East but all my Northern friends and family would consider me living in the South!

I haven’t gained huge amounts in equity. I would be lucky to get 10% more than I paid for the house 10 years ago.

And what you are forgetting is that council tax is to pay for local services, with the majority of it being spent on adult social care and children’s social care. Those with higher incomes are not using those services more than others. In fact, it’s often the opposite. Larger income, means larger pension which means you self fund for social care.

According to Google there are
25,600,000 homes in England

As such 1 in 39 homes across the country will be severely impacted by the policy

If people think this is acceptable
I find that incredibly sad

If it has to go through the HofL I suspect once again ( like the assisted dyeing bill) the country will be relying on the unelected to give this appropriate scrutiny.
Sometimes relying on those that need a majority vote to keep their jobs clearly isn’t the best course of action to protect everyone

I disagree, a poll tax would be fairer

@GasPanicyes, my mum is in Wandsworth. She does not pay a lot of council tax considering the value of her property.