The budget is out, and it bites. It's the biggest tax hike in a generation and will do little to stop the current exodus of Britons. That is because Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who oversees the nation's finances, has moved beyond targeting the wealthy to punishing the middle class.
The Englishman's home is his castle and now that castle is under siege. Around 1.3 million middle-class households could now see an increase in what they pay each year on homes they already own. From April 2028, owners of properties identified as being valued at over £2 million will be liable for an annual charge, in addition to council tax liabilities. That charge will fall into specified bands, depending on the price of the home at purchase. Charges will increase in line with inflation each year from 2029-2030 onwards.
Ms Reeves’s “mansion tax” will hit professional, middle-class families, mostly in London and England's South-East. Critically, the new levies could be catastrophic for retirees, the elderly and other homeowners who are asset-rich but cash-poor.
For avoidance of doubt, it’s the professionals, supposedly some of the working people Labour promised to spare in its election manifesto, that Ms Reeves is now going after: the lawyers and the doctors and the engineers.
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