Families to be £435 better off each year if Rishi Sunak reforms property tax, says Tory MP

HOUSEHOLDS would be £435 better off each year on average if Ministers introduced a revamped property levy.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is today urged to rip up the existing levies and introduce a new homes tax – which campaigners say will help the cost of living crisis.

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Calls for a new Proportional Property Tax would lead to 76 per cent of households being better off – with every home on a Red Wall seat being better off by £1,000 a year.

The move backed by the Fairer Share group would see the end of stamp duty and council tax and an end to lower value homes paying more in proportion than expensive homes.

Families living in a £100,000 home in Easington constituency, Durham, pay 1.4 per cent of the home value in the town hall levy each year, they say.

The rate is some 52 times higher than the 0.03 per cent rate which the £6.2 million home in Westminster would pay.

Estimates suggest the policy would raise as much as £4.5 billion from foreign homeowners, empty homes and second homes.

Overseas ownership in England and Wales and tripled to 250,000 in the past decade which has often priced out local households.

Ex-Tory Minister Lord Willetts has previously backed the move to bring more houses on to the market.

The move could free up 600,000 homes for wannabe buyers in the UK.

Tory MP John Stevenson and vice chair of the Northern Research Group, last night said: “If we are to fix the housing market so that more young people can have a home of their own, then ministers should give serious consideration to taxing the high numbers of foreign investors in the UK.

“The best way of achieving this could be through a Proportional Property Tax, freeing up homes up and down the country.”

Andrew Dixon, founder of Faire Share stated: “The Government is under increasing pressure to get to grips with the housing crisis and ensure foreign homeowners pay their fair share of property tax.

“Adopting a Proportional Property Tax would mean lower bills for the majority of households in the UK while the surcharge on these purchases would lead to hundreds of thousands of homes coming onto the market for UK residents.”

A Government spokesperson said: “An annual house price tax would mean soaring bills for many hard-working families and pensioners who have saved and improved their homes. We have no plans to make these changes.

“We’re providing support worth around £12bn this financial year and next to help families with the cost of living.

“We’re cutting the Universal Credit taper to make sure work pays, freezing alcohol and fuel duties to keep costs down, and providing targeted support to help households with their energy bills.”

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk