Like Christmas TV repeats, or the flu, a wealth tax comes round on a regular basis and each time it has collapsed in a heap.

In 1990, twelve of the 36 OECD countries had a wealth tax and by 2017, this had gone down to just five. When the Spanish tried it, they raked in a paltry 500m euros.

Compared to behemoths such as Capital Gains or National Insurance, it’s a drop in a very large economic ocean. It’s also expensive to administrate, because the rich are adept at moving their money elsewhere or investing in property.

The truth is that the Exchequer will earn 100% of nothing from penalising the ‘Non-Doms’ and private schools. If anything, it’ll cost Reeves money to implement these follies, demonstrating the triumph of political dogma over fiscal pragmatism.

We are more likely to end up in the slough of despond and lower employment, productivity, and growth than the sunny uplands of prosperity.

As the somewhat naïve Chancellor is finding out to her dismay, there is nothing more ultra-mobile than the ultra-wealthy.

Before you know it, London will be a ravaged husk of its former self.

Those who can, will move to fiscally more attractive climes such as Italy, Monaco, Cyprus, and Dubai who welcome high-net-worth individuals. Before you know it, London will be a ravaged husk of its former self.

Labour needs only to look at the examples of New York and California, where high taxes have degraded these former shining beacons of affluence.

Whilst their financial infrastructure collapses, the wealthy have voted with their Gucci-clad feet and run to the fiscal safe havens of Texas, Arizona, and Florida, which are only too happy to have them.

But the Conservatives can make fiscal errors too. Take the foolhardy Stamp Duty changes imposed by the self-congratulatory former Chancellor George Osborne in 2014/15 which ensured that house prices at the higher end of London have stagnated, if not fallen, with little chance of revival in the future.

The ONS predicts that mortgage interest rates will rise over the next five years, making it even more difficult for house-buyers and leaving the market in a state of suspended animation.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner’s genius idea is to encourage a further collapse of the residential property market (by building 1.5 million homes) which, according to her, will make homes more affordable for some but leave others with the scourge of negative equity. May I suggest that she should cancel her subscription to The Beano!

Author: Trevor Abrahmsohn is Chief Executive of estate agency Glentree Estates.