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

Land tax is a much better system than SDLT. But yes it will hit London / SE hardest.

Hopefully it will be applied to council and social housing like all other, to help drive more efficient allocation of very valuable and scarce central land.

I worry as we currently buying a house in SE and paying high SD, I don’t want to be stung again.

Not worried. Higher rate tax payer with a small mortgage and house value. Can't wait and it is needed!

Not worried. Higher rate tax payer with a small mortgage and house value. Can't wait and it is needed!

If it's just to replace council tax it looks like i'll be paying the same regardless as even though my home is very average for the area my house got bumped up the bands at some point before I bought it.

Im actually open to paying more tax if we actually saw more effective policing, roads and schools. As ever im sure it will be squandered whatever is raised....

Didn’t see this thread and started another on Property.

In principle, I’m for the abolition of SDLT. But as I have just paid £30,000 in Stamp Duty a few months ago, the prospect of now paying a stamp duty-replacement tax is pretty galling.

Can you share the link please?

I don't want to share details of my property situation and council tax I pay so not to be outing, but my SIL lives in Westminster in a one bed 400sqft ex council flat and pays 1450 council tax. I wouldn't call it virtually no council tax for this type of property. Given that pp pays 4k for 4 bed house I'd say Westminster is overcharging.

Go to outer London and you'll find people in newer built social accommodation paying over £4k a year when they don't even own the property and will never earn enough to buy there or anywhere else.

Why those credits?

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-bands-and-charges#how-much-council-tax-will-i-pay-for

The highest council tax in Westminster is just over £1k. The highest where I live is five times that and the lowest is £1.6k.

How hilarious and conveniently naive of you. London subsidises the entire county. I pay more than that in CT

https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/council-tax-burden-highest-lowest-uk

London and the SE are the only areas in the entire UK which generate more in tax revenue than it receives in public spending. You’d be totally fucked without us

And one of the reasons for this is that investment in London has been prioritised over the rest of the country for many, many years.

Prefer Lardy cake smothered in marg

He hasn’t even laid out his policies yet. Why start making things up?

You just need to Google council tax bands Westminster to find out exactly what is charged. It ranges from £1050 in band D to £2100 in band H.
In Blackpool (the most deprived LA in the UK) for comparison band D is £1675, band H £5026.
Westminster has one of the lowest CT charges in the UK.

Please stop and think, OP. Some London boroughs, including Westminster and Kensington&Chelsea, have amongst the lowest CT rates in the entire UK. That doesn’t make sense. It should be rationalised.

Burnham isn’t stupid and he knows how to count. Why on earth would he set about losing support in the manner you suggest? Even if he liked the idea, for which there is zero evidence. Perhaps this gossip is being spread by the political opposition. I would put £££ on that.

Having lived in America for over 15 years I favour what Americans refer to as a property tax. I agree that the elderly should have some protection, but disagree with those who like the California system which was voted in by a famous referendum, Prop 13. State services have been suffering ever since, especially the education system. Prop 13 was too extreme.

I agree stamp duty seems pointless at best.

Apologies for crossposting with @5128gap

Is this a genuine response? Where does the investment come from? Who pays the most taxes? London is the capital city…

I own two properties so if this came in, I would be paying higher tax on the second.

Good. I should be. The affluent should be paying more tax.

London is responsible for 25% of tax revenue. That means that 75% comes from outside London. It’s not like Sandra working for NMW in Tesco Express on Shoreditch High St is singly responsible for enriching the lives of us northern peasants.

London makes so much money because it’s bigger and so many banks, financial services, big tech etc have their head offices there, not because you’re all working harder. GDP per capita is £69,000 in London vs. £65,000 in Manchester.

Didn't do any extensive googling, just the 1st link:

Wilkie House, Cureton Street, Westminster, London SW1P, 1 bed flat for sale, £450,000 - Zoopla

1 bed flat, band C, council tax will be £931. This is 433sqft one bed flat for 450k! with only 80 years lease remaining.

Then Blackpool:

Warley Road, Blackpool FY1, 5 bed semi-detached house for sale, £299,950 - Zoopla

5 bed, 2 bath, 3 reception room - freehold 300k. Council tax band D £2513.

Are you serious about asking the owner of the first property to pay more?

I just googled…

and a house worth £27 million has a council tax of £2095.

might be serious about asking these dudes to cough up a bit more, don’t you think?

I thought the low council tax was because it’s a high density population, with a lot of parking charges and traffic fines that bolster the finances?

Yes just googled and Westminster generates 8% of UK business rates. So I’m sure the local businesses would love that to be lowered when the money isn’t needed anymore. Same for lowering the parking costs etc.

If this new policy does come down the pipeline, I can’t imagine anyone buying until it’s done. Who would want to complete and 6 months later find out they paid stamp duty for nothing?