Labour’s Mansion Tax is Dead – R.I.P.

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Following the General Election it’s now appropriate for the new Parliament to debate a fairer more progressive family home taxation system to raise more money for the NHS. Following the surprising and unexpected majority general election victory, 53,229 supporters of the FairHomeTax Campaign are urgently calling on the new MPs to make family home taxation fairer and to debate this issue in Parliament now.  FairHomeTax is not fighting for lower taxes per se, but for fairer and equitable taxation for all UK Home owners.

Labour ignored the better solution. Why?

 The FairHomeTax Campaign has been working tirelessly lobbying MPs to recognise that Labour’s Mansion Tax idea was flawed.  Howard Cox, founder of the FairHomeTax Campaign said: “We spoke with 34 Labour MPs in the last 3 months and it was clear that these politicos were nervously split on their support of a mansion tax and thought it could even influence voters to sway from Labour. When presented with our independently commissioned economic analyses from the CEBR they agreed that they were not comfortable supporting their leader’s Mansion Tax plans. Over half of these MPs agreed the CEBR findings were compelling and if elected they would have put FairHomeTax’s proposed more effective family home taxation ideas open for debate.”

Following the Conservative Party’s victory, Mansion Tax is now not an option.

But why did the Labour leadership ignore conclusive proof that introducing extra council tax bands is more popular and would be more effective than their punitive mansion tax approach. FairHomeTax proved conclusively that people would rather the government introduce a higher rate council tax band on the most expensive homes than a mansion tax. This was supported in FairHomeTax’s independent evidence from the CEBR that clearly showed that adding 3 bands to existing council tax valuations will generate more than Labour’s Mansion Tax. Full details can be seen at https://www.fairhometax.uk/FairCouncilTax_CEBR.html 

The largest home owner’s poll about mansion tax.

Between January and April 2015, supporters of the FairHomeTax Campaign were asked to take part in a survey of the options available to a new Government using family home taxation approaches that they believe would be the most effective method in raising tax revenue for the NHS and public services.  Questions in the survey were based around the independent evidence from the CEBR’s 3 economic reports commissioned by FairHomeTax. The survey questions answered by 8,206 home owners from across the UK can be seen at https://www.fairhometax.uk/poll2015.html

The Poll shows that Mansion Tax is the least favoured effective choice. The best taxation approach being to add 3 new council tax bands to the highest valued properties. Even outside of the south east, Labour’s Mansion Tax was not the most favoured option with choosing to allow councils to charge a 100% council tax premium on properties that have been vacant for longer than 6 months as their preferred option.

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