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Is it a vote-winner? Labour plans to replace Stamp Duty and council tax

Jeremy Corbyn says he wants to end property price rises, abolish council tax for tenants and more severely regulate the buy-to-let market.

Sheila Manchester

Link to Labour's land reform news stamp duty

Should there be a general election soon, home owners may want to take note of Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to scrap council tax and replace it with a ‘progressive property tax’.

Mr Corbyn would ensure that those with larger (i.e. family) homes and gardens would be faced with a staggered higher rate of taxation for each of the top four property bands by value.

In a slightly confusing move, the report says that Stamp Duty Land Tax should be phased out for those buying homes to live in themselves, and capital gains tax for second homes and investment properties should be increased.

It also proposes that tenants will be exempt from council tax and that only property owners will pay, but makes no comment about how that would affect rents.

These plans won’t bring any rays of sunshine to hard pressed estate agents, especially those marketing even ‘normal’ family homes. The recommendations come within Labour’s “Land for the many” report, which aims to “Change the way our fundamental asset is used, owned and governed.”

The proposals within the report are for the Labour Party to consider these as part of its policy development process in advance of the next general election.

James Brokenshire, the Housing Secretary, said, “These proposals are extraordinary and deeply damaging in equal measure. This tax bombshell for families would mean family homes with gardens paying far more and higher taxes on pensioners by abolishing the single person discount.”

End the Buy-to-Let frenzy

The report also believes reform is needed in the PRS: “We recommend major reforms of the private rented sector. For example, tenancies should be open-ended and landlords should lose their power to evict a tenant who has not broken the terms of the tenancy agreement for the first three years of the tenancy agreement, and should have to provide grounds for eviction after that point. There should be a cap on annual permissible rent increases, at no more than the rate of wage inflation or consumer price inflation (whichever is lower). We propose that Buy-to-let mortgages should be more firmly regulated and restricted.”

Read the full report…

June 5, 2019

5 comments

  1. Great idea Mr Corbyn, so a landlord with a portfolio of 30 properties, faced with paying the council tax for each one of them – solution – increase the rent by the amount of council tax that he/she has to pay. So no gain apart from yet another deterrent to private landlords.

    Increasing capital gains – interesting – given the amount of MP’s who have made literally millions by flipping property and changing their main residence to obtain the maximum return on property when they were in office.

    I think Mr Corbyn with his simplistic ideas could dampen down an already challenging housing market, just what the economy needs.

  2. Okay an interesting idea, everyone is equal, but those on the left are more equal than others, when there are no landlords or agents left we can all move in with Jeremy.

  3. Typically ridiculous proposal from the Marxist. We are not in a communist regime or Utopia, why do the Labour party continue to come out with these hair-brained ideas? Remember the last Labour debacle ? HIPs, they didn’t listen then… Yvette Cooper and her great ideas led us into recession and years of national suffering. Let’s hope the electorate do not fall for this con – it will wipe billions off the economy.

    • Michael
      This is indeed a vote winner for anyone that hasn’t worked for a living or earned money for their families. Yes he is a self confessed communist and any educated person will know that under that regime EVERYONE is equal except the people at the top as they are just a “little more” EQUAL than the rest. God knows where Diane Abbott comes in that, but I reckon she still will. I believe it was Gordon Brown who downgraded the financial regulations, allowing us to buy toxic debt from America and start the biggest recession this country has ever seen! Yes they are hairbrained schemes. Remember Comrade Corbyn at the last election? He promised students “No University Fees” if he was elected and got hundreds of thousands of votes as a result. Then after he failed to win (thank God, but only just!), he admitted that he couldn’t have afforded to do that anyway. So he blatantly lied for a political vote and even admitted this to the country! Yes I know he is dangerous because of that alone (let’s leave out the IRA and Middle East connections for this occasion), but surely he is not as dangerous, irresponsible or downright ignorant as the people who still believe him and continue to vote for him? We are now clearly, heavily embroiled in the American political system where instead of voting for the best candidate with the best policies, we now vote for the person or party we hate least! Common sense clearly has gone out of the window it appears for all politicians of every denomination it seems, who seem more interested in their own futures rather than that of their country? Let’s hope common sense will out, although this time I am afraid, I am not so sure.

      • Yes John, I agree totally comrade… it is a worrying time. Corbyn is not brought to book for blatantly lying about tuition fees and yet Boris is hung up by his trousers for no worse a crime. Trial by left wing media, cynical but very true. Who do you vote for? Absolutely, the one you hate the least… the one who looks like they may not lie direct to your face… very hard to detect these days they are all capable of it. At least Corbyn is unlikely to get the student vote this time…

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