Millions of families will reportedly be targeted with additional taxes in the Budget this month.
Thousands of middle-class households are now being warned that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will introduce a new levy in a bid to raise £600million.
One in ten homes in England, currently designated Band F or above for council tax, will be revalued and could be under threat of an additional charge.
Labour insiders have dubbed the move ‘the mansion tax’, suggesting it will only hit the wealthiest of homeowners.
However 1.3million middle-class families living in Band F properties, particularly those living in London and the South East, where house values are higher, will be affected.
They could face annual surcharges of hundreds of pounds on top of bills which already average £3,293.
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Meanwhile the majority of more than 150,000 homeowners living in the most valuable properties in Bands F, G and H face paying thousands of pounds more each year.
Around 2.4million of these properties, representing the one in ten English homes, are expected to be revalued by the Treasury to enable them to levy the tax.
A council tax surcharge is then likely to be applied to around 300,000 of the most valuable homes.
Will you be affected by Labour’s mansion tax?
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The Chancellor sees the move as one of several measures that will raise an estimated £25billion to shore up the country’s finances after she abandoned her plan to raise income tax.
Accusing Labour of waging ‘a class war against middle England’, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride told The Telegraph: ‘If Starmer and Reeves decide to introduce a new tax raid on family homes, they will be punishing aspiration and hitting hardworking people.
‘Under Labour, nothing is safe – not your job, your home, your savings, or your pension.’
Sir Mel also told the Daily Mail: ‘We are witnessing the most shambolic pre-Budget period in memory.
‘The constant leaking, briefing and kite-flying is fuelling uncertainty and damaging our economy.
‘Markets are unnerved and business confidence is at a record low.
‘This is chaos on an industrial scale. We are becoming an economic laughing stock under Labour.’
Speaking on Times Radio, the former Conservative chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt said: ‘The whole world is reading this information and they’re looking at British economic decision-making.
‘And it looks very chaotic and I don’t think that’s a good thing.’
Experts have warned that the new tax could be damaging for the housing market due to uncertainty.
The system could see up to a quarter of homes revalued in some areas of the country with over 15% of all homes in London and the South East falling within the scope of the new levy.
Reeves’s ‘mansion tax’ comes after the Treasury said Labour would uphold its manifesto pledge to not raise income tax despite reports that the Chancellor was planning to row back on this election pledge.
It was reported that the Chanceller was planning an increase of 2p in the pound.
But the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is believed to have concluded that it would not generate as much money as expected.
England’s council tax system has come onto Labour’s radar because it has often been called ‘regressive’ by economists.
It is based on property values from 1991 and means that people living in smaller homes often pay proportionally more in tax than those in larger properties.
Other options are being considered after a review commissioned by Minouche Shafik, the Prime Minister’s chief economic adviser.
These include a full revaluation of properties.
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