Influential figures in the property industry have poured scorn on the Liberal Democrats’ plans to tax owners of houses worth over £1 million.
Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, has said that the 0.5% annual levy on Britain’s priciest homes will raise £1 billion and help ease taxation for over four million low paid workers.
However, industry figures have hit out at the proposals saying that the tax would lay ruin to an already fragile housing market, with the South East being penalised.
Speaking to the City A.M. newspaper, Ed Mead, the director of Douglas and Gordon, said: “This will freeze up the housing market at a time when that is the last thing it needs. It’s absolutely outrageous.”
Other property experts have argued that the so-called “mansion tax” could hit pensioners whose homes have increased in value, and would discourage wealthy entrepreneurs from living in the UK.
Under the plans, a home worth £1.5 million would have the 0.5% tax apply to £500,000 of it; therefore the owner would have to pay £2,500 a year. A home worth £4 million would cost the owner £15,000 a year.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Vince Cable called the plan a “small correction” in rebalancing an unfair tax system.
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