Reeves plans mansion tax for homeowners

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly drawing up a capital gains tax on high-value property sales to address a £40bn gap in public finances. The plan could end the current exemption for primary residences, affecting higher-rate taxpayers with a 24% tax on gains. A threshold of £1.5m may impact around 120,000 homeowners, potentially leading to significant tax bills. Voicing concern over such a move, Aneisha Beveridge from estate agent Hamptons warned: “For households who don’t need to move, this could act as a strong disincentive to sell, dampening transactions and potentially weighing on house price growth and Treasury revenues.” Isaac Delestre, a senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “Short of reinventing council tax entirely, the current system could be made more proportional by increasing council tax multipliers for properties in the highest bands or even adding additional bands.” He added that another option would be a new, separate tax on high-value properties, in addition to council tax.