Labour planning new ‘Garden Tax’ which would see council tax TREBLE
Small print from Labour’s manifesto reveals a proposal to replace council tax with a new Land Value Tax
JEREMY Corbyn is planning a devastating new Garden Tax that could TREBLE family council tax bills, it was claimed last night.
The small print of Labour’s manifesto reveals a proposal to replace council tax with a new Land Value Tax to raise billions for a spending splurge.
And senior Tories last night said a Labour blueprint for the tax from 2015 reveals Mr Corbyn could slap a levy of 3 per cent on the value of a homeowner’s land – including the back garden.
Such a levy would result in an average bill of £3,837 across England – a 224 per cent increase on the current £1,185 average council tax, which is based on property.
There would increases for families across the country from Bolsover to Lincoln and Sunderland to Maldon in Essex.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stormed: “Jeremy Corbyn needs to hit ordinary working families with a bombshell of new taxes to pay for his reckless hard left giveaways and this lays bare the price we would all pay.
“Corbyn’s Garden Tax will send tax bills soaring, house prices plummeting, plunge people into negative equity and force families to build over their back gardens.”
The blueprint was drawn up two years ago by an organisation called Labour Land Campaign – a group given glowing praise by both Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
Mr McDonnell five years ago claimed a radical land value tax would “raise the funds we need” by taking money from those who have “profited most out of the boom years”.
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In 2015 Jeremy Corbyn said he had been “impressed” by the work the campaign had done on “making the case for Land Value Taxation”.
Experts have previously warned that a Land Value Tax would force home owners to sell off their gardens in a desperate bid to lower their bills.
The Labour Land Campaign produced its blueprint in 2015 – admitting many homeowners across London, the south-east and market towns would be hit.
It could also cover agricultural land, which currently escapes either council tax or business rates, to raise as much as £6 billion.
The campaign called for an introductory, concessionary rate of 0.85 per cent with a higher rate of 3 per cent for landlords and owners of second homes.
But the campaign then said “the initial concessionary rates would be raised gradually to the standard rate of 3 per cent”.
Labour’s manifesto commits the party to a review into “reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax”.
Earlier this month Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said a land tax would “ensure local government has sustainable funding in the long-term”.
The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) two years ago warned the Land Tax would be a “tax on residential gardens”.
IPPR professor Iain McLean said: “House owners wuith large plots would be tempted to sell off part of their plot for a new house, and the local authority might agree.”
-In the article above, originally published on 30 May 2017, we reported on a Conservative Party analysis which used a document on the Labour Land Campaign (LLC) website in relation to land value tax. We are happy to clarify that that document envisaged that land value tax bills for owner-occupiers would not greatly exceed their council tax bills and that house prices would not decline as a result. We would further clarify that the document is one of several proposals of how to implement a land value tax and that LLC is not affiliated to the Labour Party.