Reply To: Scotland proposal
peterdelamotheYes madness John but it raises a lot of extra cash and quickly and easily. Council Tax is far too old now and has no comparison to current values of course but the work involved to revalue would be huge. Large parts of the South East would be G and H overnight. Huge increases in tax at a time when taxation is at a 75 year high.
Most countries have a land tax and do not charge tenants … rightly too. But again the trouble is you would need to increase payments by huge amounts to maintain current revenue. Do you charge social and charitable landlords or exclude? If you dont again the cost soars. What about leasehold flats? Already a major issue. The owner is the freeholder…often a company based overseas. Do you collect from them and give them the right to collect from leaseholder? The latter are long tenants of course not owners.
Suddenly you are asking many homeowning pensioners to pay all their state pension (which is already taxable) in a property tax.
Easy to do this when Council Tax was just a few hundred. Now it is thousands per year in many areas including parts of the North of England. Meanwhile “One million face renting in retirement after failing to get on the property ladder”….something you predicted. Who pays for this? HB of course. Care fees of £1200 a month? Councils. Who could not afford such a cost. The benefits bill is looking even more eye watering in the future.
None of this is easy.