What are your thoughts on replacing council tax with land value tax?

[MikeRafone]

So what are the thoughts to scrap council tax and instead tax value land?

that is what Andy Burnham wants to do if he gets where he want

he sees council tax as a regressive tax, as unfair and wants to see it changed to a land value tax.

Churchill was. In favour of Land tax as a fairer system. Advocated for by Adam Smith the founder of modern economics and Milton Friedman adviser to Margaret Thatcher

Of it’s going to cost me more money I’m against it and if it saves me money I’d support it - which will be the view of most people I guess.

How does it work with flats? I don’t know seems odd way of doing it.

Same same really, isn't it? New name for identical concept. And if the government are proposing it, it's not going to benefit taxpayers, just tax collectors.

Something needs to change. I’m paying a band higher than neighbours who have extended and have more bathrooms, bedrooms etc over the years.

I’m not sure how they would compute it so would like to understand that better

but ultimately we’ll all end up paying more in the end. Same with a wealth tax - they’ll freeze boundaries and then they’ll have to drop them because of whatever reason and before you know it everyone’s paying it!

But will anything really change other than we will all end up paying more tax? Plus, this policy change will cost millions of pounds to implement negating any funds raised from it initially I imagine.

The freeholder pays

so each parcel of land would be valued - not the buildings and charged at 1%

so if the land your house sits on is worth £100,000 then your LVT annually would be £1000

but if you rent your home, your landlord is liable. Your LZl can’t put up the rent over market value

If it replaced council tax I wouldn’t mind, but if it was some sort of combination I’d be mightily pissed off as I only just moved and paid a 25k stamp duty bill, so that would feel unfair!

How do you value land though? It’s only worth what it can be used for. If I have a house in London that you could build ten flats on worth ten times as much as the house - would that be the value?

I can see why burnham likes it though because he’ll be able to punish the South. Someone with a small 2 bed house plot in the London suburbs will pay less than someone with a mansion near Newcastle

So those of us living in a small holding with an inexpensive house would pay more than someone with a million plus pound house on a small plot of land?

Good point.
How will this affect farmers or small holdings ?

Why is this better than council tax? If you’re going to spend the time and money valuing everyone’s land, what are the pros and cons of doing that vs spending the time and money doing proper up to date council tax valuations?

Is this a way to get money to central government? The councils keep a portion and then the rest gets redistributed - from south to north

Obviously someone who owns land inn Westminster, we’re council tax is very very. Cheap. It going to have a large shock

5

Westminster City Council has some of the lowest council tax rates in the UK. For the 2026/2027 tax year, standard annual Band D council tax is £1,050.00.

Average house size in uk is 1000 sqm

that size land for house would cost 12mlion

whereas an averaged band D is over £2000 for council tax

suddenly lvt goes to ££££ and for the averaged D band it would drop

If it’s going to cost me more like someone said, I’m not interested. We already had to extend ourselves to afford the ridiculous prices in our area just to stay local. Bloody sick of the Labour government on the take all the time from hard working people.

Im in favour of everything adult paying x instead of council tax as it currently works. Let's face it if you earn more you already pay more, it's bloody incessant the tax paid by those who work hard and earn a decent living.

If it’s a million £ house the land will be high value

if you have a home with free hold it’s still going to be worth less than the £m home lad

so no

Why does the focus always have to be on increasing tax? Create some growth and incentivise people to invest and work. More tax makes me wonder what the point is in working and trying to achieve as it’s just going to be taken away?

The housing market is already looking dire in London and they would have to do something about stamp duty and deferrals for cash poor/asset Rich pensioners who tend to live in really run down properties because they can’t afford maintenance

and then there will be the impact on the rental market

That’s the idea of lvt to reduce the tax on working and increase it on land

Milton Freidman ^shudder^

So you’d rather pay tax on working then?

I guess that’s part of the problem as we are encouraged to become property owners

and anyway, landlords aren’t going to absorb extra cost that creates a loss so will either sell (and struggle if the lvt is high) or pass it on through rents

its potentially another friction on the housing market

maybe they would be better off just reforming council tax banding and values

Apologies if someone has answered this, I haven’t read the whole thread, but how would that would with councils in cheaper areas, their funding would be much less than say London, and yet their care bill, SEN bill etc will still be very high? Treat it as a centralised tax I guess and and government dish out to local govt appropriately?

and anyway, landlords aren’t going to absorb extra cost that creates a loss so will either sell (and struggle if the lvt is high) or pass it on through rents

how can the landlord increase the rent if it’s already at market value?