Budget 2025 latest: Rachel Reeves set to hit thousands of properties with new mansion tax

Britain deserves more than mixed messages and policy deviations.

After weeks of premature proposals, the chancellor must deliver a Budget that provides the confidence and consistency that has so far been lacking in both his own administration and Labour’s wider economic management.

Read The Independent’s editorial here:

Helen Miller, director of the influential think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said freezing the income tax threshold would “spoil the letter” of Labour’s manifesto.

“If it is done in the same way as it has been done so far, insurance thresholds will also be frozen.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour: “So it would also be an increase in national insurance and, if so, that would, in my view, be contrary to the wording of the manifesto which said there would be no increase in national insurance.”

Rachel Reeves is set to hit thousands of Britain’s most expensive properties with a new tax in her budget.

A new tax called the “mansion tax” may be imposed on some of the most valuable homes. The move will reportedly revalue some of the most valuable properties in council tax bands F, G and H, with a new surcharge imposed on 100,000 of them.

Mansion tax has been proposed to be levied at a rate of 1 per cent on properties valued at £2 million or more, but due to concerns about the London housing market there is an expectation that this tax could be set at a much lower value, at a maximum of £5,000.