Dr Sarah Ingham is the author of The Military Covenant: its impact on civil-military relations in Britain.
It should be no surprise that the tax-greedy Burnham government, desperate to lure away from Reform the Red Wall voters they took for granted for so long, stokes the politics of envy. Labour is determined to be seen to hit the affluent, reflected by the loss-making VAT on school fees.
Their Andy – chips, beer, gravy, private jet – wants to soak the south, particularly its more prosperous areas. From April 2028, another spite-based levy, the so-called “High Valuation Council Tax Surcharge” will be slapped on homes worth £2million+.
It is easy to imagine Labour’s class warriors in Number 10 North high-fiving, gleeful at sticking it to effete southerners: those complete bankers’ pips will squeak.
Up to 1,000 officials reportedly are being recruited as “valuation assessors”, more realistically known as Labour’s mansion tax police, to check how much a property is worth. In April, the Valuation Office was folded into HMRC.
Apart from non-stop griping about colonialism, for many English history is, alas, a gap. Magna Carta might be hazily on the radar: Parliament’s Petition of Right (1628) and Grand Remonstrance (1641) are probably not. Ahead of the English Civil War, both condemned the exercise of arbitrary power.
Executed in 1649, King Charles I could hardly claim he wasn’t warned. MPs cited examples of royal tyranny which long had undermined the “liberty, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom”. They included the unauthorised levying of taxes, as well as the enforced billeting of soldiers, perceived to be agents of absolutist royal state. The Petition described how “Inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses … to the great grievance and vexation of the people.”
Almost 400 years on, to the great grievance and vexation of some, valuation assessors, will be demanding to be received into houses (and flats).
Anyone who thinks this is irrelevant because their property does not fall into the mansion bracket, think again. The government has not denied that £1.5 million is going to be the entry level for its new spite tax.
And once the principle of any tax is accepted, then Treasury tinkering begins. Introduced in 1973, VAT was set at 10%. Since then, it has oscillated: 8%, 15%, 17.5%, 5% on some goods… Today it is 20 per cent on almost everything.
How soon before a “mansion” is deemed to be valued at £1 million, then £500,000? In June, the average UK house price was £272,118, says the Land Registry.
Proposed by unlamented Chancellor Reeves, the government says that the Surcharge will be “a significant reform to improve fairness within England’s property tax system.” It points out that in Mayfair, Band H council tax is £250 cheaper than the country’s average Band D property.
What Labour cannot admit is that their councils are often total rubbish – in all senses.
Kensington and Chelsea has a twice-weekly refuse collection, including doorstep recycling. The Conservative council’s Band D council tax is £1,643.44, £500 of which is a Sadiq Khan/GLA levy. Band D in Birmingham City Council – where the binmen are still on strike after 20 months – costs £2,353.17, in Manchester it’s £2,312.04.
In a cost-of-living crisis, householders have better ways to spend £700 a year than give it to clueless councillors who prefer posturing on Gaza to garbage. Instead of getting their councils in order, the Left expects incompetence to be subsidised by others.
In their rush to bestow more largesse on failure, the government has not considered one possible unintended consequence of its phalanx of mansion tax police – mansion tax police fraudsters.
What better way to get inside any property than to claim employment with HMRC, backed by the tacit threat to homeowners of fines and a criminal record if entry is barred?
“Distraction burglars” are one factor in last year’s 327,000 burglaries. Police UK’s crime prevention advice is unequivocal: householders should simply refuse entry to strangers who might claim to be someone they are not. “Always remember ‘if in doubt, keep them out.’” Has anyone told the government?
Property firm Savills suggests there are about 673,000 properties in the £1million+ bracket. Almost one third of households in this country are single people. Assessors could well be targeting tens of thousands of women and demanding entry into what is supposed to be their safest place – their home.
None of us wants to be on the wrong side of the Revenue. The Burnham government is set to use the power of HMRC to coerce us into letting complete strangers through the front door. For women especially, this is the stuff of nightmares.
Along with the Home Office’s grotesque “rape and kissing noises” advisory handed to illegal migrants, valuation assessors are yet another example of Labour’s blokey, ideological policymaking which highlights its contempt for women’s safety.