London mayor seeks even higher taxes for second home owners
To fix the market, Sadiq Khan is demanding even more punitive tax powers, despite his own housing delivery failures.
In order to free up more homes, London’s Mayor is demanding the Government should allow councils to charge second homeowners “much more” than double Council Tax, in a move that critics say is an attempt to deflect attention from his own administration’s housing failures.
Sir Sadiq Khan (pictured) told LBC that the current 100% premium on second homes is “not enough” to deter owners from leaving homes empty. “I want councils to have the power to charge much more for leaving your property vacant.”
The mayor’s push for greater tax powers comes at the same time as damning statistics have been released that show construction work began on less than 4,000 properties in London last year, the second-lowest number on record. This is a far cry from the 65,000 homes per year Khan promised to build in his original London Plan, a target that has been regularly slashed.
I am not being funny, if you can afford a flat and leave it empty, you can pay double council tax.”
“I am not being funny, if you can afford a flat and leave it empty, you can pay double council tax,” Khan says. “I think boroughs should be allowed to charge much, much more. We’re lobbying the Government to give councils more powers to disincentivise leaving a property empty.”
Khan highlighted flats in Nine Elms in south-west London as examples of properties “built like gold bricks investment” that remain unoccupied because owners know the “equity will go up” and argued that wealthy property investors would not be put off by just doubling their council tax.
Condemned by critics
Critics have condemned the mayor’s approach as nothing short of a cash grab and a shameless attempt to shift blame. Kevin Hollinrake, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, told The Telegraph: “Ducks quack, dogs bark and Labour politicians raise your taxes. So, it should come as no surprise that Sadiq Khan is treating London residents as a cash cow.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance also criticised the proposal, with spokesman Elliot Keck saying: “Londoners have had to endure a miserable nine years under Sadiq Khan, with services crumbling and crime soaring. Now to add insult to injury, the mayor is advocating further punishing those households with second homes in the capital, despite rent already being extortionately high due to his failed housing policies.”
So the logic is investors who own properties in London and can afford to keep them empty should be taxed more because these properties are depriving someone of a home. Anyone being deprived of a home in London wont be able to afford to rent the properties that are being taxed for being left empty.
This is the socialist politics of envy and punishment that doesn’t fix markets it seeks to dismantle them.