SNP ‘GARDEN TAX’ COULD COST YOU £4K

Middle-class Scots facing huge hike in annual bills

MIDDLE-CLASS Scots could see their council tax bills more than double under a ‘garden tax’ being driven forward by the SNP.

Ministers have asked for proposals to be drawn up that could see council tax and business rates scrapped and replaced by a land value tax (LVT) on homes and gardens.

Analysis by supporters of the system suggest that some households would pay £3,855 a year more than under the present council tax.

Similar plans were included in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour manifesto earlier this year, with critics arguing that the ‘devastating’ and ‘destructive’ tax would send house prices plummeting and plunge mortgage holders into negative equity.

A bid to consider LVT was also included, without fanfare, in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government last month. Now the radical plan is being actively pursed by Ministers, who have asked their land reform quango to draft concrete proposals.

At present, householders pay council tax, which is set according to the value of their property – the actual bricks and mortar.

A land value tax would instead be set according to the assessed value of the actual land owned. The levy would inevitably penalise large

landowners most heavily and dampen land speculation.

It would also see bills soar for homeowners with bigger gardens or anyone living in cities and more desirable towns and suburbs.

Ministers have asked the Scottish Land Commission (SLC) – set up earlier this year to consider new policies for land reform – to draft a new levy targeting homeowners.

The Government sees it as a way of forcing large landowners to sell parts of their estates, as it pushes on with its radical land reform agenda in an effort to put one million acres of land into community ownership by 2020.

At a conference organised by the SLC on Thursday, Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham vowed to lobby in support of a land value tax, saying: ‘There is an active conversation that we have begun that will be talking about that issue. What we are trying to do is generate a real debate and discussion about what a tax system could look like.’

The rate of LVT is determined by looking at the saleable or rental value of the land. A two-bed semi-detached house might be worth £250,000, with the land it stands on valued at £125,000. Even at a modest 1 per cent a year, the LVT would cost £1,250 annually – higher than many Band D council tax bills – and most supporters of LVT believe the rate should be much higher. Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman, a prominent campaigner for Left-wing land reforms, believes LVT should be levied at 3.16 per cent, with the bill for a typical Band H house more than doubling from £2,298 to £6,153 a year, an increase of £3,855 a year.

Mr Wightman estimated LVT would raise £3.8 billion a year, including £2.4 billion from res- idential property. Owners of farm land, sporting estates, forestry, and urban vacant land would be charged, but businesses would see bills cut.

Last month, Nicola Sturgeon announced that ‘the time is right’ to consider an increase in income tax and other devolved taxes.

Yesterday a spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group said: ‘Taxpayers are struggling under a tax burden that is at a 30-year high. The last thing we need is more taxpayer cash spent on a quango investigating introducing more taxes.’

Scottish Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘The SNP has made Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK. Further levies on homes, particularly when it made such a mess of stamp duty reform, will be hugely unpopular.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Conducting research into the impact of tax and fiscal incentives, including a prospective LVT, will be only one strand of the commission’s work in the next three years.’

‘Levies on homes will be hugely unpopular’