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

But they say: Across the country, the tax would see HM Treasury gain £5.6 billion in surplus revenue.

So it will raise more tax.

He is a Cambridge graduate, from before they softened up the entrance to encourage Northern upstarts. I wonder how many of the “Southeners” commenting have his academic background?
Obviously this does qualify him to run as PM but like many before doesn’t guarantee he’ll make a decent job of it. I am in no way a Labour supporter but if we have to have a Labour government then I’d rather have an alpha male character rather than the wishy washy Labour leaders we’ve had over the last 30 years.
I always wonder how different the 90s would have been if John Smith hadn’t died prematurely. He was probably the last true Labour statesman and morally “straight” leader of the Labour Party. It has been said that he would not have allowed the country to be drawn into the Middle East conflict in 2003 which may have altered the countries whole trajectory over the last 20yrs. I never liked Blair and was disappointed that Milliband lost the leadership contest.

How does a second class English literature degree qualify him to be PM? He's never even had a job outside the public sector.

The country wasn't drawn into conflict in the Middle East, Blair was an enthusiastic ring leader, happy to lie to the electorate to get support for Labour's murderous invasion of Iraq.

i live in a northern area which has a lot of poverty and social deprivation which means the council needs to spend most of its money on social care, so services outside of that are pretty limited. the roads are a mess and there are potholes everywhere, they got rid of a load of litter bins because they cut back on the staff for emptying them so there is rubbish and fly tipping all over the place. i'm paying more council tax than the same band in maidenhead although my house is not worth anything like a house down there.

But he has made mention of a Land value Tax.

The calcs I have seen seem to suggest that the cutoff point for paying more will be somewhere in the middle of what is currently band E if it implemented as suggested. Of course they may fiddle around with all this.

Lisa Nandy? You have simply gone too far!

I am a big supporter of Burnham. Generally, he delivers on policy, and he does have a vision. His policies will not benefit me personally, but I’m ok with that. We have a very unequal society both geographically and economically. Who wants that? Plus, it is a sad fact that personality matters. And Starmer has none. Nice chap though he undoubtedly is

Not worried, but happy. A Land Value Tax is SO what this country needs to rebalance the tax burden from income to wealth and address the failure of the housing market to actually house people.

And I'm a homeowner in the south east btw.

We have a very unequal society both geographically and economically. Who wants that?

Are you kidding? Lots of people want exactly that, as long as they get to have in unequal in their favour! 😃

There is no point in worrying about something now which you have no control over and might not happen

@overunderover you’re right of course. My mistake 😂.

Loved John Smith. Such a loss to the country.

Do people not get assets vs money? Do you want people on thr spot have to sell their houses to pay these mental extra taxes?

Yes there is no reason why money should be penalised more than assets from a taxation perspective.

And it is easy to come up with schemes to allow the taxes to be paid when the house is sold etc. I think this was part of Reeves proposals, that people unable to pay the mansion tax could defer it until they sold the house. Probably at higher cost of course.

Suggested on another thread a few days ago -

Maybe they should take a multi pronged view to make it really fair -

Tax on property based on the number of bedrooms/bathrooms
Tax on number of people living in property with children included.
Tax on the size of the garden.
Credit if you don't use state education but have children.
Credit if you have private health care.

This will stop people in the South being penalised for having an expensive property which is something out of our control, plus we are already at a disadvantage because of this. I have an old 4 bed/ 2 bath house worth almost £2 million so not large at all. We do have a very big garden and outbuildings/sheds so perhaps should pay more for this.

It needs to be equal accross the country and should include 'use' of services.

I am concerned about Andy Burnham full stop (I am south but not London / London areas). I am no Starmer fan, he hardly set the country in lights however he was calm in a crisis, structured and I think bought a gravitas to the bunch of muppets behind him. Personally I’d prefer Yvette Cooper to step up or David Milliband. Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner, God help us!

A lot of Labour hate the south and view us as all rich (very much not, like saying all the north is rich like Alderly Edge is rich). Often tax us higher even though wages are now the same and spend very little here (our infrastructure often lacks in comparison), with the exception of some Labour councils in the south.

I was quite surprised when I visited Manchester to all the amazing trams, public spaces and public transport.

However, yes the south are about to get battered again.

The tax on land in this country definitely needs an overhaul, that's for sure. If Burnham manages to get anything through, it will be nothing short of a miracle!

Our house is worth about £280k in the East Midlands but it has a fairly big garden, does that mean our land tax will be very high.

We’ll be marginally better off, not enough to really notice.

Would this lvt help even out house prices at all? I mean if your lvt is 10k pa and 2k somewhere else?

From what I read certain areas of affluent London pay minimal CT. Westminster I think.

The last time anyone looked tax rates were the same everywhere in England. Scotland is where tax rates are high.

I live in the south east
I don't really see the issue. It will help bring down overinflated land values in the south east that have been propped up for decades by cheap money, help to buy etc, various perverse tax incentives that made investment in property too generous

Is this tax on top of council tax or instead of? Here in Wales our CT is already astronomical. We would never be able to sell our house of they slap this tax on top.

@Noodles1234 Yvette Cooper? Really? Dim would be a compliment