Burnham to send ‘mansion tax police’ to assess home values
Inspectors can demand access to properties, and owners can be fined for refusing, in ‘assault on civil liberties’
CAMILLA TURNER
Andy Burnham will send “mansion tax police” to homes to decide whether the owners should pay thousands of pounds more under the new levy, The Telegraph can disclose.
HMRC valuation agents will be able to demand entry to properties to assess whether they are worth more than £2m and therefore liable for the levy.
Homeowners who refuse an inspector entry would be committing a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £200.
The move has been described as a “sinister assault on civil liberties” and an invasion of privacy.
The “mansion tax”, unveiled by Rachel Reeves, the former chancellor, at last year’s Budget, will hit properties worth more than £2m with an extra levy of between £2,500 and £7,500 a year, depending on how much they are worth.
London and the South East will be the areas hit hardest by the policy, although many homes in upmarket rural areas will also be affected.
To identify which homes will be subject to the levy, HMRC agents will use third-party data and publicly available information to value properties.
But ministers have now admitted – through answers to a series of parliamentary questions posed by the Conservatives – that Government inspectors will also carry out “internal inspections”.
Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said: “We may have changed prime minister, but it’s the same old story with Labour – how can we raise taxes to pay for more benefits? Now they have chosen a sinister assault on civil liberties as their latest method.
“Burnham and Angela Rayner are sending their council tax police to people’s homes so they can drag them into paying their new family homes tax. This is a tax on aspiration, on working hard and investing well, and Labour will stop at nothing to make as many people as possible liable for it.”
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Sir James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said: “Hard-working families and pensioners face the prospect of HMRC tax inspectors snooping around their gardens and inside their homes, to justify hiking taxes on them.
“Even homes which are below the new tax thresholds face these intrusive checks, with the threat of criminal prosecutions and fines if people refuse.
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Kirstie Allsopp accuses Labour of ‘massive own goal’ as tax raid on expensive homes prompts house price slump
HUGO DUNCAN
Property guru Kirstie Allsopp has accused Labour of a ‘massive own goal’ after a tax raid on expensive properties triggered a 25 per cent slump in house prices.
The television presenter and Location, Location, Location star highlighted a report in the Mail this week showing homes in parts of London have seen close to £300,000 wiped off their value in the past year.
The collapse in prices follows Labour’s decision to raise stamp duty on more expensive homes and impose a surcharge on second homes while also introducing a so-called ‘mansion tax’ of up to £7,500 a year on properties worth more than £2million.
Responding to the Mail’s report on X, the social media site formerly called Twitter, Allsopp posted: ‘Massive own goal, they were warned, multiple times, but they knew better.’
It is feared there is worse to come as Andy Burnham and John Healey plot a fresh avalanche of tax hikes in the October Budget to fund Labour’s lavish spending plans and expansion of the already bloated state.
This could include a tax raid on middle-class homes as well as on the wealthy through capital gains tax and inheritance tax.
Official figures yesterday showed government borrowing unexpectedly rose last month as spending outstripped tax receipts – highlighting the challenges facing the Chancellor.
A separate report from the Office for National Statistics this week showed the average value of a home across the UK rose by 2 per cent in the year to June to £272,000.
But while areas such as the North West and North East saw prices go up by more than 4 per cent, London suffered its tenth month of decline in a row with the value of the average property down 2.5 per cent.
The worst-hit borough in the capital was the City of Westminster – including areas such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Marylebone – where prices fell 25 per cent to £854,198. That fall wiped £290,624 off their value.
In Kensington and Chelsea, prices have fallen by over £215,000 or nearly 15 per cent from approaching £1.5million to around £1.25million over the past 12 months.
Other areas of the capital to see large falls include the City of London, which is down 20 per cent, while the average house price in Tower Hamlets and Hammersmith and Fulham fell 13 per cent.
The highest rate of standard stamp duty is 12 per cent on homes worth more than £1.5million but can rise to as high as 19 per cent for overseas buyers of second properties.
Stacy Eden, head of real estate at tax consultancy RSM UK, called for reform of stamp duty ‘to reduce penal rates at the top end’ and ‘provide a much-needed boost’ to the housing market.
Labour’s tax hikes have come at a time when even well-off families are struggling to afford expensive homes in pricey areas due to elevated mortgage rates.
A clampdown on non-doms and the threat of further wealth taxes has seen an exodus of many affluent people and entrepreneurs from the UK – hitting demand for housing in the capital in particular.
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(UKR)