There has been an angry response to the news that Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has acquired a holiday home reported to be worth over £700,000 – just as taxes and restrictions have been slapped on additional properties across the UK.
News reports over the Bank Holiday weekend claimed that Rayner – who is also Deputy Prime Minister – had purchased a seaside apartment near Brighton. This is in additional to the home she owns in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne, which she bought in 2016 for £375,00 and is now valued at £650,000, and in addition to a grace-and-favour ministerial apartment at the historic Admiralty House in Westminster, which is funded by the taxpayer.
Critics have pointed out that Rayner’s latest purchase comes after recently-enacted powers given to local councils
Many second home owners in England have had to pay twice the amount of council tax from April this year thanks to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, introduced by the last Conservative government. This gave councils the discretion to charge additional council tax of up to 100% on furnished homes not used as a sole or main residence. The council tax surcharge comes on top of the 5% stamp duty surcharge which is levied on anyone buying a so-called ‘additional home’ in England.
In Wales, second home owners also face two taxes: a higher rate of Land Transaction Tax (LTT) when purchasing a property, and a much higher council tax premium of up to 300% of the standard rate. In Scotland the Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) surcharge for second homes is 8%.
Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly said over the weekend: “Angela Rayner is responsible for housing policy, yet she won’t even be straight about her own. Time and again she’s been asked to declare exactly what properties she owns and where she pays council tax, and time and again she has dodged those questions. Now we find out she’s got three homes. We’ve done everything possible to get answers, but she still refuses to come clean.”
A Daily Mail editorial over the weekend commented: “The Government she belongs to does not even want us to have second homes, let alone third ones, and is implementing a severe council tax raid on such property. True, the double tax was a Tory idea, but Labour has happily proceeded with it.
“How can she behave like this, while punishing others who aspire to do the same thing? And how can she do this while her colleagues plan yet more raids on home owners in November’s Budget?”
it is understood that Rayner will not be letting out her new apartment for short lets or conventional holiday rentals.
This article is taken from Landlord Today