Andy Burnham signals higher homes tax for London in coming years to ensure 'fairness' in Britain
Exclusive: The Prime Minister tells The Standard: ‘I don't want to see a situation where there's resentment towards London’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has hinted he may reform property tax later in his premiership in a move that threatens to hit London, telling the Evening Standard in an exclusive interview that he wants to ensure "fairness" in how homes are taxed across the country. Burnham has previously backed replacing council tax and stamp duty with a new proportional property tax that could land London with an additional £7.5 billion bill, and has also backed former Chancellor Rachel Reeves' family homes tax, or "mansion tax", on homes worth £2 million or more, the vast majority of which are in London or the South East. The Government has already slashed central funding for a string of local authorities, mainly in London, including Westminster and Wandsworth, effectively forcing them to raise council tax or cut services.
Since entering Number 10, Burnham has said he has no imminent plans for major reform, but told The Standard: "Moves were made in the Budget last year, council tax has got to be fair across the country, and I don't have any further plans in that regard... in this moment. But it's important that there's a sense of fairness between all parts of the country. We've got to make sure that London isn't seen from the outside as somewhere that gets different treatment... I don't want to see a situation where there's resentment towards London."
Burnham also risks a backlash over separate plans to move thousands of jobs out of Whitehall as part of what he has called the biggest "devolution of power in modern times," and faces a growing economic backdrop of rising Government borrowing costs, with one of his key economic advisers, Lord O'Neill of Gatley, warning that mortgage rates will rise unless the Government gets a grip on borrowing costs ahead of Chancellor John Healey's Budget next month.
You can read Nicholas Cecil's and Luke Reevey's article in the Standard here.
