Burnham 'mansion tax police' could demand entry to people's homes under new rules
Live in a house that could be worth £2,000,000? No? Then don't worry. Yes? Well, the HRMC valuation agents could soon be knocking on your door.
There are set be hefty fines handed out if you refuse to open it, as well.
Already dubbed the 'council tax police' by critics, agents are set to be deployed to extremely valuable properties across England to see if they are eligible for the new 'mansion tax,' reports The Telegraph.
Officially named the high-value council tax surcharge, which was announced by former Chancellor Rachel Reeves in 2025's budget and set to go ahead under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, it will see taxes rise by up to £7,500 a year on properties valued over £2m depending on their exact worth.
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Homes previously valued above £1.5m will be reassessed to see if they have now hit the £2m mark, the Valuation Office chief executive Jonathan Russell told MPs earlier this year and internal inspections will be one part of the process.
The inspections have been slammed by critics
The Valuation Office will use publicly available data and third-party data to make value assessments, as well as satellite imaging.
However, 'internal inspections' of homes are to be carried out as well if required to record details like property size, architecture as well as the number of rooms, bedrooms, bath rooms and even stories.
It's reported that denying an inspector entry could lead to criminal prosecution and a fine of £200, with failure to provide requested information without a 'reasonable excuse' may be punished with a fine up to £500.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride has slammed the inspections, as well as the new tax.
He said: "We may have changed Prime Minister, but it's the same old story with Labour - how can we raise taxes to pay for more benefits?
"Now they have chosen a sinister assault on civil liberties as their latest method."
He labelled the new levy itself as a 'tax on aspiration.'
"Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner are sending their council tax police to people's homes so they can drag them into paying their new family homes tax," Stride continued.
"This is a tax on aspiration, on working hard and investing well, and Labour will stop at nothing to make as many people as possible liable for it."
A government spokesperson stressed that any inspection would be pre-arranged with the property owner and defended the tax as a way to address 'inequality' in the council tax system.
"The public understands that we are addressing a longstanding unfairness, where a Band D home in Darlington pays more in council tax than a £10m mansion in Mayfair," the spokesman said.
"The Valuation Office has extensive experience valuing domestic property, and will use a wide range of evidence to determine bandings."
Burnham has been a critic of the current council tax system
Burnham became PM on July 20 and promised to tackle the 'highly regressive' council tax system to spark the 'biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen'.
He is said to be a fan of replacing council tax with Proportional Property Tax (PPT), which would be a single flat rate tax charged of 0.48 percent of a property’s value on an annual basis, though it is not yet official policy.
Explaining what they believe are the issues with the existing system, Fairer Share states: "Expensive properties and areas of the country with greater property wealth pay relatively less in Council Tax as a percentage of the property value. This unfairness has been exacerbated by a lack of revaluations since 1991. The effective tax rate on residential property is just 0.2% in London compared to 0.7% in the North East.
"As with the Poll Tax’s predecessor, Domestic Rates, successive governments have avoided updating property valuations because such a move would be unpopular in their wealthier constituencies.
"All political parties necessarily rely on voters in wealthier areas to win elections, and updating property values for Council Tax would have meant a significant rise in taxes for these voters. They have often been supported in this by much of the mainstream media, who have consistently opposed reform."
Fairer Share believes the average household would save £556 a year under PPT instead of council tax.
Daniel Murphy