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Labour's Land Value Tax would be excruciating for London

On page 86 of its manifesto Labour raises the prospect of a Land Value Tax (LVT):A Labour government will give local government extra funding next year. We will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term.I did the calculation for my house.  My current council tax is £2,270.  Under Labour's LVT proposals this would go up to £5,890, a rise of £3,620 or 160%.  It would be excruciating for my family.  Finding £3,620 out of an already reduced after tax income would effectively mean the end of holidays or a move to a smaller property.  It is quite easy to do this calculation for yourself.  Get your property value off Zoopla.  Multiply by 0.55 to get an estimate of the value of the undeveloped land.  Multiply 0.0085 to get the tax you would pay.  The rate of 0.85% comes from proposers of the tax themselves.  It is no good Labour claiming that this is scaremongering.  They have raised the proposal and stated the rate.  We know it has to be a large amount because they themselves are presenting it as a get out of free jail card for local government finance. Here is a mechanism that will allow Labour to pump vast funds into its local government clients without affecting headline tax rates for regular people.  The 1%ers will pay!  Unfortunately that means anyone who has struggled to buy a property in London.  Good luck on Thursday!

Phil Taylor ● 3073d13 Comments

I think the informed residents of Ealing made their feelings quite clear in the recent election!Unfortunately, the Tory Govt has found £1,800,000,000,000 of bribe money to give to a bunch of homophobic, anti-abortion creationists to retain office.And they just denied nurses, firefighters and other public sector workers a pay increase of 1%!!

Mark Walker ● 3050d

Yet another attempt to invent Labour Policies!! Perhaps the Conservatives should spend more time on their own ideas rather than dreaming up one's for Labour. Given the Queen's Speech yesterday pretty much every May brainwave has gone!!Though NHS privatisation and destruction via the Naylor report appear to be going ahead.

Peter Chadburn ● 3057d

I did the calculation on your house based on those percentages (which aren't Labour's - they haven't come up with any yet)... it must be worth over 1.25 million.  Plus if you are going to be paying more income tax then you must also be on a salary of over 80,000.  I suggest you may not struggle as much as you're letting on

Jeremy Hanson ● 3057d

More sad in fighting between Ealing party politicos - so does no one care about wheelie bins anymore!!!!

M Powes ● 3067d

This is a piece of Conservative propaganda just like a flyer I got through the letterbox.I think Phil Taylor should also be declaring himself as a former Conservative Councillor for Northfields.

Philippa Bond ● 3068d

Council Tax increases are restricted by Government and it was only recently when the Government announced that they would allow a percentage increase so long as it was ring-fenced for social care did this Council increase it.  With the cuts in the amount given from Central Government it should be no surprise that this Council was freezing the amount. Social care is in a dire situation throughout the country and all politicians of every colour should be talking to each other to do something about it and find better solutions.  The political point scoring on this is disgusting.There are lots of different taxes and it would be good if some of the bigger companies who seem to manage to run rings around the system were brought into line.  It just looks as if laws are deliberately made with loopholes in them.

Philippa Bond ● 3068d

I agree with Marion. Council Tax should have kept pace with inflation rather than having constant cuts to services.

Susan Kelly ● 3068d

If the council had increased council tax each year instead of being so proud that they had frozen increases and slashed services we might not be in this position now.  Good services require paying for and if you have to holoday less often so be it.  You have a lovely house in a lovely part of London and probably make use of the NHS, schools, roads, rubbish collections etc and these dont come cheap.

Marion Dunn ● 3069d

Maybe so in other countries as you I doubt whether people there are particularly happy about it nor necessarily do they consider it fair.

Keith Iddon ● 3072d

"Gloss" - please explain?Did you read the detailed paper?I am not saying that it is the right thing to do - but it does look like something worth investigating.Some for of LVT is in use in many countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland and parts of Australia, New Zealand and the USA.A multi-party (including Conservatives) report was prepared for Mayor of London that investigated LVT.It looks at pros and cons.https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/final-draft-lvt-report_2.pdfWere you aware of it?In any case, the Labour manifesto is proposing considering new options such as LVT - this is a statement of intent to investigate and not necessarily to implement. Seems reasonable to me.

Paul Webster ● 3072d

'On page 86 of its manifesto Labour raises the prospect of a Land Value Tax (LVT):A Labour government will give local government extra funding next year. We will initiate a review into reforming council tax and business rates and consider new options such as a land value tax, to ensure local government has sustainable funding for the long term.' Can we trust Labourland's gloss on this? I fear not.

Graham Weeks ● 3072d

However, the paper from LabourLand (not Labour Party) that you referred to says the following:"A major issue is that in some localities – most notably London, and to a lesser extent in certain other areas – where land values have risen excessively, LVT set even at that concessionary rate could mean that the outlay for households might considerably exceed that currently paid in Council Tax. In order for households not to receive a bill greatly exceeding their current Council Tax bill in those localities, therefore, it is proposed that the rate of LVT be set by each local authority such that the LVT collected the same amount of revenue as that currently collected by Council Tax from owner-occupied households in their local area."So the .85% that you refer to is a simple average for the whole country for ease of calculation but would not be that for London.

Paul Webster ● 3073d

I may end paying a lot for Land Value Tax, but at least I will stand a decent chance of surviving a heart attack in Ealing unlike what would happen if Joy Rebekah (Damschroder-) Morrissey nee Inboden (a.k.a.) Boden got her hands on the NHS. What on earth made the Ealing Conservatives select this two-faced carpet-bagger from America with its Republican-championed private healthcare industry as its Ealing Central and Acton Candidate? Dr Fabio Conti merits respects, so does Isobel Grant, but Joy Rebekah (Damschroder-) Morrissey nee Inboden (a.k.a.) Boden does not. For someone who spoke at the Acton hustings about how she came to Britain to study the social healthcare model (she mentioned Sweden) how can we trust someone with such a negative view of the NHS and our British respect for it? Is she British now, or she still American?From today's Daily Mirror:Tory candidate mocked 'hysterical' Labour's NHS fears - in seat that's having its local hospital downgradedJoy Morrissey accused the party of "fetishising" the service and said people should stop calling it "our NHS" or "treating it like a religion"  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-candidate-mocked-hysterical-labours-10562985A Tory election candidate mocked Labour as "deluded" and "hysterical" for warning about the NHS's future - in a seat whose local hospital is being downgraded.Joy Morrissey accused the party of "fetishising" the service and said people should stop calling it "our NHS" or "treating it like a religion" in a scathing blog last year.She wrote in January 2016: "The institution remains remarkably unchanged - the promised armageddon again failing to materialise."The credibility of these increasingly hysterical forecasts of doom can surely be no more than that of the deluded old soul wandering Oxford Street with his "The End Is Nigh' placard."The only one left for them now a NASA-style 10 second countdown."Her local Ealing Hospital is being downgraded from a district to a local hospital as part of national cost-cutting 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' (STPs).She accused Labour of "fetishing" the service and told people to stop calling it "our NHS" (Photo: PA)The plan is set to cut the number of beds from 288 to 50 and leaves questions over the future shape of Ealing's A&E as part of a reduction from nine to five acute hospitals in north west London.Have your say on this storyComment BelowThe STP report says Ealing's current setup is "not financially sustainable" after it ran up a deficit of £30million.And it does not rule out an A&E downgrade, saying only: "No substantive changes to A&Es in Ealing will be made until there is sufficient alternative capacity out of hospital or in acute hospitals."The plan was formally published after Ms Morrissey's blog post last year, but campaigners said fears over Ealing Hospital had been known for some time. It has already had its paediatric and maternity wards closed with services moved elsewhere in north west London.Ms Morrissey's Labour rival Rupa Huq said: "This confirms what we already know - The Tories won’t protect Ealing [Hospital] because their candidate looks at our NHS with derision."She should apologise for these offensive remarks."Ms Morrissey is in a bitter battle to overturn the 274 majority of Labour's Rupa Huq (Photo: Getty)The hospital provides for thousands of people in the warring candidates' Ealing Central and Acton constituency, one of the most marginal seats in the country. It sits just outside the seat's boundary.Ms Huq is defending a majority of just 274 and the Greens and UKIP have pulled out to give each side a boost.Ms Morrissey wrote her blog post on the Conservative Way Forward website in January 2016 with a photo of her outside Ealing Hospital.In it she complained the Tories could "guarantee every patient the gift of eternal life and send them home with a complimentary pot of caviar and it still wouldn't be enough".She added: "Stop treating a valuable public service like a religion that can only be spoken of in a hushed tone of reverence rarely heard outside of the Vatican."We can begin by desisting from the glutinous and now obligatory practice of referring to 'Our' NHS.The blog post was written in January last year"For every member of the public that has bought into Labour's fetishisation of this institution there is an equally large and silent number that haven't."They do not gaze at the NHS with uncritical awe - and neither should we."Ms Morrissey became embroiled in a row over the NHS plans last week with Ms Huq.She pulled out of a hustings and threatened legal action against her Labour rival, accusing the campaign of "blatant lies" over a leaflet that said the hospital was closing.A spokeswoman for London North West Healthcare NHS Trust said: "There will be some changes at Ealing Hospital over the next three to five years, to provide local people with the services they use the most, so patients receive the best possible care. This will include a local A&E at Ealing Hospital.”Ms Morrissey has been contacted for comment by the Mirror, but had not replied at the time of publication.

John Alan Peters ● 3073d