Labour to slap higher council tax on homes with big gardens, say Tories

Home owners with gardens will pay higher council tax under plans being considered by Labour, it is claimed.

The Conservatives said Sir Keir Starmer would use a scheme hatched by Labour in Wales snooping on the size of people’s gardens via satellite for “Big Brother” re-evaluations.

Following the same “blueprint” for council tax in England could hit households with an increase of £482 a year, claims the Tories. However, Labour rejected the claims as “fantasy”.

In May, The Telegraph revealed that the Labour-run Welsh Government is planning to use satellites to spy on homeowners with big gardens in order to overhaul council tax.

The Welsh Government has said it will introduce higher council tax bands and higher tax band rates to address “property wealth” and “rebalance” the current system.

To accomplish the task, it has developed a computer database known as the automated valuation model, where property values can be calculated through mathematical and statistical modelling based on data inputs including plot sizes and aerial photography.

While the shake-up has been postponed until 2028, the Tories have said that the technology being developed in Wales could be quickly adapted to tax homes in England.

The Tories said that imposing new additional council tax bands, levying more tax on certain bands or bumping homes into higher bands could all be used to increase council tax.

With council tax currently standing at £2,171 a year on an average band D home in England, the Tories said that based on the current banding, moving that home into the higher band E would mean an automatic increase of 22 per cent – equivalent to £482 extra a year.

Sir Keir has described the Welsh Labour Government as a “blueprint for what Labour can do across the UK” and has also previously spoken about his desire to reform the funding of local authorities.

When asked by Sky News last week whether he could “rule out” a review of council tax in England, he said that council tax was “too high for too many people” and that he was “not wanting to raise tax”.

When Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, was asked about council tax, he said that there was “nothing in our plans” requiring a change.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, meanwhile argued as a backbencher in 2018 that council tax was “at the very least long overdue a re-evaluation and revision of existing band”.

Torsten Bell, the Labour candidate for Swansea West, has also made the case for revaluation.

In his recently published book, Great Britain? How to Get Our Future Back, he said: “It’s time to bite the bullet and carry out a revaluation of properties in England and Scotland (Wales has already done it). We need to either add more bands, increase the bill variation between them, or move to a fully proportional tax on property values.”

Michael Gove, the Tory Housing Secretary, said: “A Labour government would hammer family homes with higher council tax, just like Labour have done in Wales.

“Keir Starmer is being far from candid with voters about the taxes he would increase to fill his £38.5 billion black hole but given that the Labour government in Wales is his ‘blueprint’ for Britain, family homes across the country are clearly in the crosshairs.

“He has repeatedly failed to rule out costly revaluations and adding council tax bands, offering only a vague pledge for ‘reform’.”

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Having spent 14 years making promises they could not deliver, this desperate Tory Party is now reduced every day to making up a new Labour plan that does not exist, instead of answering the questions about the massive holes in their own plans, which will lead to a £4,800 hike in family mortgages.

“We are not going to spend the next two weeks responding to whatever fantasy plans the Tories are making up.

“They would be better off considering how they were meant to be the antidote to Liz Truss and ended up becoming nothing more than the latest instalment of her disastrous approach.

“The country needs change and we have set out a clear, practical and costed plan for change in our manifesto.

”After 14 years of Tory chaos, it’s time to turn the page and rebuild Britain with Labour.”