• Response sent to MP Mike Freer regarding his letter about mansion tax

I have received a letter from you claiming that my council tax bill will go up if the next government brings in a mansion tax. This used inaccurate information and seemed to be based on either a complete misunderstanding of how council tax works, or a deliberate attempt to whip up fear and alarm.

You claim that the mansion tax would affect properties worth more than £1million, but the Labour and the Liberal Democrats have only ever said it will start at £2m. Less than two per cent of houses in Barnet are worth more than £2m, and it would be fairer to everyone else if their owners paid more than they do now to fund the NHS.

Why should an oligarch living in a mansion in Bishops Avenue or Totteridge pay the same property tax as a pensioner or family living in a Band H house worth far less than £1m?

When rates were abolished by the Thatcher government in 1990, owners with houses worth over £2m were paying between £3,000 and £10,000 in rates. Had the rates not been abolished, they would be paying between £6,000 and £20,000 due to the effect of inflation alone.

It is not true that there will need to be a complete property revaluation across the country for a mansion tax to be set up. You claim in your letter that there would be a revaluation with the result that my house, which is currently in Band E, would be in a higher council tax band. That is completely illogical. Lower council tax bands cover lower value houses, middle bands cover middle value houses, and so on. My house would still be in a middle band and I would pay the same council tax as I do now. Or do you think that because house prices have gone up there will be no houses at all in the lower bands?

This is all fantasy anyway because there doesn’t need to be a revaluation. The Labour Party policy is to use the already existing tax bands devised by the current government for the enveloped dwellings tax to cover houses above £2m.

I look forward to your reply, especially on whether you think it’s fair for the owner of a 12-bedroom mansion with tennis courts and swimming pool to pay exactly the same council tax as a family in a three-bedroom home?

Peter Skyte

Mayfield Avenue, North Finchley