Rachel Reeves plan to replace stamp duty with 'national property' tax 'screams of desperation'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly planning to replace stamp duty with a new “national property tax” on residential homes valued at above £500k.

Officials have been told to study how a “proportional” property tax could work, The Guardian reported on Monday, adding the local property tax could replace council tax within two Parliaments.

“Values of different properties have changed very differently since council tax was introduced – on average increasing more than twice as much in London as in the North East, for example – yet the tax has not changed to reflect that,” explained the Institute of Fiscal Studies in a 2020 paper on reform to council tax.

A group called Fairer Share proposes scrapping council tax entirely, along with other property taxes, and switching it for a 0.48 per ce