Greg Hands MP is encouraging residents to attend a meeting of local campaign group “Stop the Mansion Tax” being held in the Small Hall, Kensington Town Hall, Hornton St, W8 on Monday 1 December from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
Labour Leader Ed Miliband MP, is proposing to introduce a new ‘Mansion Tax’ on properties over £2 million if Labour are successful at the general election. Other senior Labour figures want this threshold to be £1 million, or even less. There is therefore a serious risk of the Mansion Tax becoming a general tax on family homes in London and the South East.
Many residents of Chelsea and Fulham have written to Greg to express concern over the Mansion Tax proposal.
Greg, MP for Chelsea and Fulham, has been campaigning against the so-called Mansion Tax for years, since it was first discussed by the Liberal Democrats in 2009 and adopted by Labour in 2012. Greg, said: “These Labour proposals are worrying, un-workable, and unfair. They would be particularly damaging in my constituency, which has some of the highest property prices in the country. This would be introduced as a ‘mansion tax’, but this is really a ‘homes tax’. Once in place people might suddenly find that their modest home has been classified as a ‘mansion’. Many properties in Chelsea and Fulham which cost £1m or even £2m, far from being mansions, are in fact flats or small houses. Any new housing taxes would invariably spread to more and more ordinary homes.”
While Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham will be affected more than other parts of London, the proposal is causing anxiety for residents across the capital, and an independent campaign, Stop the Mansion Tax, has been set up in response.
Campaign organiser Dr Harald Lipman said: “More properly this proposed tax should be known as the Home Owners Tax. Every home owner in the land is at risk now or at a later date of being caught in its net. Horrendous problems will be created for many people on limited incomes who will be unable to pay. Charitable causes will suffer as donors will be unable to afford to contribute. This unfair tax must be stopped.”
Greg added: “I hope many residents will be encouraged to support this campaign, and while I am sorry I cannot be at the meeting myself due to work in the House of Commons that evening, representatives from my office will be there.”
If residents want to know more about this campaign or the event on Monday 1 December, please contact Greg.