No 10 gags civil servants to stop them speaking out in public
In an edict issued across Whitehall, Downing Street has warned public sector officials not to talk at open events where their comments have not been vetted in advance.
They have also been barred from taking part in any public question-and-answer sessions — even if they are part of an industry event.
The rules also apply to media briefings on issues such as public health, carried out by senior figures such as the chief medical and scientific officers. While these can go ahead they must be cleared in advance by Downing Street and have a minister or special adviser in attendance.
Those affected include public sector officials working for arms-length bodies such as the media regulator Ofcom and the education inspectorate Ofsted, which have operational independence from the government. The rules also apply to senior health leaders, diplomats and military officers.
The edict has already led to cancellation or curtailment of a number of public events where senior government officials were due to speak.
The Whitehall think tank the Institute for Government (IFG) was forced to cancel an event on Tuesday which was due to discuss Labour's new approach to public sector spending after Nick Donlevy, a senior civil servant at the Treasury, was made to pull out.
Last week the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) told journalists attending a land warfare conference that they would not be able to report on a speech by Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of the air staff, who is expected to become head of the armed forces.
• No 10 gags military chiefs at events where a minister is present
The think tank said there had been a change in 'reporting rules relating to speakers from the British armed forces'. It said that the majority of speeches and panel appearances by British personnel 'will not be for reporting', whereas those by individuals from foreign militaries will be.
Sources confirmed that the change had been forced on Rusi by the new Downing Street rules.One senior Whitehall figure said the move had been made to prevent high-profile officials from causing 'problems' for the government by using speeches to 'lobby ministers in public' or criticising spending plans or government policy.
However, it has caused unease both inside and outside the government with one senior source describing it as 'unnecessary' and heavy-handed.
'It's the usual desire of No 10 to control absolutely everything without thinking through the consequences,' the source said. 'The idea that even the cabinet secretary cannot take part in a public question-and-answer event is both misguided and counterproductive.'
Another added: 'This is mad on so many levels.'
Alex Thomas, programme director at the IFG, said the rules would have a 'chilling effect' on public debate. 'This will lead to a more closed government and less effective policymaking,' he said.
• Foreign Office staff told to resign if they don't like Gaza stance
'Openness is one of the seven principles of public life and it cannot be a good thing that officials that are responsible for the day-to-day running of critical public services will no longer be able to attend, speak, and answer questions at events.'
'Ministers will always be the main public spokespeople for government activity but this is an overreach and will damage the quality of government and public discourse.'
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, described the move as 'outrageous'. He said: 'This unprecedented ban on civil servants speaking in public will damage public debate, politics, policymaking and the civil service itself. What are they thinking?'
Baroness Spielman of Durlston, the former head of Ofsted and now a Conservative peer, said the restriction was 'astonishing and unworkable'.
She added that it would force bodies like Ofsted to cancel interactive stakeholder events without a minister present and slow down communication. 'Government grinds too slowly and this will jam the works completely,' she said.
Sir John Kingman, a former permanent secretary at the Treasury, said that when he worked for government he would participate in an event involving questions most days. 'It was quite an important part of the job because many people understandably want to know what the government thinks and why, and want a chance to discuss it,' he said.
A Downing Street source insisted the guidance was not heavy-handed and would be looked at on a 'case by case' basis.
But No 10 said it reflected the principle that ministers were responsible for representing the government in public — rather than officials.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said that the rules around media engagement were 'longstanding and established'.
'It has always been the case, and a constitutional principle, that ministers are ultimately accountable for decision-making to parliament and the public — so it is right they are routinely scrutinised by the media and MPs.'
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The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Pity the beat cops now that Britain's top policeman has banned them from dancing at the Notting Hill carnival
It's a world in flames. Too much antisocial behaviour, too many street gangs, too few crimes being solved – but fear not, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has a plan to fight back. Go to the Notting Hill carnival this weekend, he's told his officers. Keep the peace, lay down the law – and I'd better not catch you dancing. He's right to be concerned. Dancing policemen are a menace. They undermine the tradition and the public's trust. The Laughing Policeman was bad enough, but dancing ones? You wonder how they ever got through the vetting and the training. From now on, perhaps it will be a specific part of the vetting and the training. 'Regan, you almost made it through, but when we played that bit of Rihanna in the final module, you shimmied a bit and there was a definite head bob. I'm sorry, this job isn't for you.' There are many problems in the running of and the policing of the Notting Hill carnival. The numbers are too big, the west London space too small. We know there's crime: two murders last year and melees in which more than 60 officers injured. No one underestimates the challenge. Last week, Tory members of the London Assembly called for City Hall to take over the running of the event, and mooted once again the idea that it could move to a park, Hyde Park perhaps, and become ticketed. No one close to the event and its tradition wants that. But everyone knows that, security-wise, things have to change. Will motionless, ear-plugged officers do that? I'm not sure that's the eureka moment. I can't quite equate the difficulty of keeping roads unblocked and hyped up young men from maiming themselves and others with the dereliction of rogue officers momentarily shaking a leg to Mighty Sparrow, Sean Paul or Shaggy. How does that work in fact? Is that the officer who says: 'There is a punch up over there and I know I should intervene, but I do like this banging tune, and I'm having a nice dance, so I'll wait until it's finished?' I don't think any officer would do that, and I doubt the commissioner really thinks so either. The statement from Scotland Yard says: 'Almost 7,000 officers will be deployed to this year's event. They are there to keep revellers safe, not to join in the revelling. We want officers to positively engage with the carnivalgoers while staying vigilant at all times and remaining able to respond and intervene swiftly as necessary. They can't do this if they are dancing. The standards of behaviour expected as part of the policing operation will be communicated clearly before the event, just as they have been in recent years.' On its face, this last bit appears to reveal that those who have got jiggy wit it at carnival in recent years have been dancing disobediently, perhaps with intent, perhaps with malice aforethought. As for those who have actually danced in actual contact with the revellers, well, bring back Keir Starmer's all-night courts. There is, of course, a simpler explanation for this new diktat, rather than any genuine nexus between carnival crime and the beat officer who likes the beats. It's not really that too many officers over-engage: it's that occasionally one makes a human connection, and someone takes a photo of that, and it ends up on the TV and in the papers – because little else happens on a bank holiday – and the rightwing press goes full tonto about woke coppers who talk to folk they should be tasering. Before you know it, someone is saying that the commissioner himself is a woke disciple who secretly loves Afrobeats and privately takes the knee on Congolese religious holidays, and that we really need new leadership, of the kind that Nigel Farage would seek out were he to reach No 10. And all of that grouching is bad for the top team at Scotland Yard, who'll be forgiven by the right if they never catch another criminal, so long as they don't go woke. So the best thing for them, short of stopping the music itself, is to stop the thin blue line dancing, even for a smiley snapshot. And so they have. It's all quite funny, and it's all quite sad. Because those pictures of communal revelry between the public and law enforcementwere sometimes a bit cringe and often a bit stagey, but they spoke to a desire of some officers to present as a police service rather than a police force – and showed an enthusiasm from carnivalgoers to embrace that. And for those who weren't there, those moments – like the time in 2017 when a PC Daniel Graham threw his shapes and went viral – conveyed a world that doesn't always exist, but one that most of us would like to see. We'll have the old pictures as an archive, but pity the officers deployed to carnival this year: concerned about the crush, concerned about the crime (with optimists at the Mail already predicting 'three days of carnage') and now concerned that a surveillance camera might catch them twerking in the line of duty. Jeez, isn't policing dangerous enough as it is? Hugh Muir is a Guardian columnist
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ed Davey calls for review of terrorism legislation after Palestine Action arrests
Update: Date: 2025-08-19T09:43:58.000Z Title: Davey is also calling for a review of the law which has seen Palestine Action supporters arrested at demonstrations across Britain in recent weeks. Content: The Lib Dem leader is seeking a review of the laws to prevent the 'en masse' arrests Tom Ambrose Tue 19 Aug 2025 10.43 BST First published on Tue 19 Aug 2025 08.52 BST From 9.06am BST 09:06 He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and 'are a very worrying organisation', people are being arrested 'en masse'. The Lib Dems have written to the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation 'to try to see if there are changes that can be made … so that it doesn't happen again'. He told BBC Breakfast: In the House of Commons, we abstained [from the decision to make Palestine Action a proscribed organisation] because we didn't think the government had made that case. We absolutely accept that criminal acts have happened against British military assets and that is deeply worrying. Updated at 10.13am BST 10.43am BST 10:43 Keir Starmer has returned to Scotland after his family holiday was interrupted by crunch talks on Ukraine in Washington DC. The prime minister's plane flew from the US to Glasgow overnight following the White House discussions, landing on Tuesday morning, PA reported. The bloke just can't catch a break when it comes to getting away for a bit of sun – or 'light cloud', as per today's forecast for Scotland. This is the second summer in a row that his holiday plans have been disrupted after he cancelled a European trip last August when rioting broke out in the UK and tensions escalated in the Middle East. The prime minister also delayed his departure for a trip last Christmas following the death of his brother aged 60 who had been suffering from cancer. 10.29am BST 10:29 Keir Starmer is a 'patriot' who supports the public displaying of the England flag, his official spokesperson claimed amid an apparent row over councils removing flags from lamp-posts. Downing Street said that the prime minister sees national pride as 'an important thing,' in response to controversy over recent decisions by two councils to remove English and British flags, The Telegraph reported. In the past two weeks, local authorities in Tower Hamlets, east London, and Birmingham have announced plans to take down Union and St George's flags from lamp-posts. Meanwhile, Worcestershire county council – notably led by (checks notes) Reform UK – claimed on Monday that hanging such flags from lamp-posts could pose a risk to life. The No 10 spokesman said: I haven't asked him about specific cases of specific councils. But what the prime minister has always talked about is pride in being British, his patriotism in that – not least with the Lionesses in the Euros – and patriotism will always be an important thing to him. Asked whether Starmer thought people should put up English and British flags, he said: Absolutely. Patriotism, putting up English flags … we put up English flags all around Downing Street every time the English football team, the women's and men's, are around. Worcestershire became the third council to express opposition to the flags when a spokesman said St George and Union flags hung from lamp-posts in Wythall risked endangering pedestrians and motorists. Karl Perks, Worcestershire's Reform UK cabinet member for highways, said the flags could be 'dangerous', adding: 'Climbing up lamp-posts and attaching flags to them may not be the best thing to do, mostly because it's dangerous and could cause damage. There are no specific plans to remove the flags.' He advised that people would be better off displaying their flags 'in your own front and back gardens, on your cars, in your windows and on community buildings where agreed by the whole community'. 10.16am BST 10:16 Sally Weale Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey. Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms. The survey by the parenting charity Parentkind showed struggling parents being forced into debt. Nearly half (45%) of those polled planned to use credit cards to pay for their children's school uniform and a third (34%) said they would rely on Klarna-style delayed payment services. The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, urged schools to help struggling parents by reducing the number of branded items of uniform that pupils are required to wear as a matter of urgency, before a forthcoming change in the law. A limit of three branded items, plus a branded tie for secondary and middle schools, will be enforced from September 2026 after the government's children's wellbeing and schools bill becomes law, but Phillipson wants schools to act sooner on a voluntary basis. 'School uniform matters but it shouldn't break the bank. No family should have to choose between putting food on the table and buying a new blazer,' she said. 'Parents have told us they want fewer costly branded items – and that's exactly what we're delivering. Schools can help ease the pressure on families right now by reducing the number of branded items they require.' Currently, schools can require parents to buy multiple items branded with a school logo, often from specialist suppliers, with many asking for more than five and in some cases 10 items, pushing total uniform costs up to £400 including PE kit. Under the new legislation, parents will be able to buy cheaper uniform staples such as shirts or trousers from general retailers including Aldi and Marks & Spencer. 10.09am BST 10:09 David Cameron's 'bonfire of the quangos' decision to abolish England's council spending watchdog has left a broken system that is costing taxpayers more money than it was promised to save. In a highly critical report, academics at the University of Sheffield said the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised savings of £100m a year by abolishing the Audit Commission. However, replacing the public body with a private-sector model had resulted in 'chaos' and soaring costs to audit councils amid the financial crisis hitting England's town halls. Several councils have declared effective bankruptcy linked to years of austerity, soaring costs amid pressure on services, as well as local missteps. They include Birmingham, Nottingham and Woking. The Audit Reform Lab at Sheffield said the average cost of external auditors checking a local authority's finances was now at least £50,000 higher in cash terms than when the Audit Commission was disbanded in 2015. Private-sector accountancy firms took over the job of auditing local government accounts in England after the agency was abolished, in an austerity-driven push by Tory and Lib Dem ministers to find savings and efficiencies. 'Ten years on, however, it now seems clear that these reform ambitions have failed,' the authors of the report wrote. 'Only 1% of audits were delivered on time in 2022-23, with many audits delayed by several years. Audit costs have risen dramatically in response. An unwieldy, but ultimately operational centralised bureaucracy was replaced by market chaos. The £100m per annum savings heralded by the UK government in 2014 are now a distant memory.' 9.54am BST 09:54 Keir Starmer will co-chair a call of the so-called 'coalition of the willing' on Tuesday morning. The prime minister and French president Emmanuel Macron have been leading the talks between nations looking to assist Ukraine. Starmer and several European leaders travelled to Washington for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump on Monday. Updated at 9.56am BST 9.48am BST 09:48 The UK has climbed down from its controversial demand that Apple provide access to encrypted customer data, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to US officials. The reversal ends a diplomatic standoff between London and Washington, after it was reported last month that the former was likely to withdraw its request following pressure from US vice-president JD Vance. Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence under President Trump, told the Financial Times that the UK had 'agreed to drop' its request for Apple to unlock encrypted data belonging to American citizens – an action Trump had previously compared to surveillance practices in China. She said: I'm happy to share that the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a 'back door' that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties. Although the UK has agreed to rescind the request, it has not yet been officially withdrawn, according to a source familiar with the situation, the FT reported. 'Over the past few months, I've been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside president Trump and vice-president Vance, to ensure Americans' private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,' Gabbard added. Updated at 9.50am BST 9.32am BST 09:32 Ben Quinn Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist. Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: 'Send them home.' Eddy Butler, a well-known figure in far-right circles who was a key strategist in the rise of the British National party, can be seen wearing sunglasses in the background of one of the photos Jenrick shared after the visit. It is not clear whether Jenrick met Butler, but the photo was seized on by far-right figures eager to exploit the protest, which they have heavily promoted. Butler boasted to friends about Jenrick's appearance in a post on his Facebook account: 'At the Bell Hotel, riding shotgun for Robert Jenrick, pretender to the Tory leadership.' A Labour party spokesperson described Jenrick as 'a disgrace' for attending a protest 'organised by a far-right party', which was also attended by someone with 'a long history of involvement with neo-Nazi groups'. 'Jenrick once proudly boasted about ramping up the procurement of asylum hotels when he was immigration minister. It shows, at best, a staggering lack of judgment,' the spokesperson said. 'Kemi Badenoch must show some leadership, explain what action she's going to take against her shadow justice secretary, and demonstrate that she is strong enough to stand up against this challenge to her authority and to basic decency.' A source close to Jenrick insisted that the MP had 'no idea' who the former BNP strategist was and did not speak to him at the protest rally. 9.20am BST 09:20 Here's some reaction to our scoop yesterday that the UK Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax. Read the full story here: Meanwhile, David Fell from Hamptons told the Times: Who is better off will come down to how closely the government chooses to follow any recommendations. But I think in response to the general principle, the shift would probably cut the cost of buying the most expensive homes, but add to the annual cost of ownership, particularly given the artificially low levels of council tax charged by many places that have the most expensive house prices. The impact of a change to the system would probably depend on the level at which the rates were set, and the length of time it takes for the higher ownership charges to outweigh existing stamp duty and council tax bills. Head over to my colleague Julia Kollewe's business live blog for more reaction on this story throughout the day: 9.14am BST 09:14 It is 'absolutely essential' for the US to be part of European security guarantees for a potential Ukrainian peace deal, but there is 'lots more work to be done' on what they will entail, a minister has said. 'The really important progress yesterday was on the security guarantees, these issues that the prime minister and president Macron have been leading on within Europe, with 30 countries involved in planning with a coalition of the willing to make sure we can provide those guarantees. 'And the important news yesterday is that the United States will be part of those guarantees. That's absolutely essential, because the people of Ukraine can't be expected to rely on the word of president Putin,' pensions minister Torsten Bell told ITV's Good Morning Britain. He added: Those guarantees are really important. You're right to say that there's now lots more work to be done on the nature of those guarantees. That's what is now under way. You've seen that happening immediately. It was already under way, as I say, across 30 countries, and now the United States is going to be involved in that. He said it was 'premature' to talk about whether British troops could be on the ground as part of a Nato force to guarantee security. 9.06am BST 09:06 He said that, while Palestine Action have committed criminal acts and 'are a very worrying organisation', people are being arrested 'en masse'. The Lib Dems have written to the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation 'to try to see if there are changes that can be made … so that it doesn't happen again'. He told BBC Breakfast: In the House of Commons, we abstained [from the decision to make Palestine Action a proscribed organisation] because we didn't think the government had made that case. We absolutely accept that criminal acts have happened against British military assets and that is deeply worrying. Updated at 10.13am BST 9.02am BST 09:02 The prime minister has 'done a good job' to help keep Europe united in its support for Ukraine, according to the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Davey praised Keir Starmer's approach along with fellow European leaders but said the UK needs to do more to strengthen Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's negotiating position, ahead of a potential one-to-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He said: We need to make sure that European alliance is holding and, to be fair to the prime minister, he has done a good job in keeping that coalition of the willing together with European allies. But … we are not doing enough to help Ukraine and strengthen its negotiating hand. Further support would be providing British Typhoon jet fighters and for frozen Russian assets to be seized and used to 'support the Ukrainian defence effort'. He also said US president Donald Trump's reversal on calling for a ceasefire is a major concession to the Kremlin. Asked whether last night's White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy could be considered a success, he said: We have this idea of some sort of security guarantee with American involvement, it's a little bit vague but I fear with what they are talking about with land deal is a price that we cannot let Ukraine pay. Ukraine won't want to pay it. I think if you appease an aggressor like Vladimir Putin, we know in history that it ends in a bad way. I just hope the media, here in the UK and internationally, don't fall for any of the spin coming out of the Trump White House and really analyse what actually has been achieved or not achieved. Readers will recall that this is not the first time Davey has pleaded for better media scrutiny of right-wing politicians on the BBC. Last month, he told the same show: 'The BBC needs to do a better job, needs to hold Nigel Farage to account and if I have to come on your programme to do that, I'll do just that … you cover the tittle tattle around Reform, you don't cover their policies.' Updated at 9.17am BST 8.52am BST 08:52 Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I'll be bringing you all the latest news from Westminster (and beyond) throughout the day. We start with news that environment secretary Steve Reed has ordered direct oversight of major transport, energy and housing schemes, enabling the government to intervene early to prevent projects being set back by environmental concerns. Ministers plan to step in earlier on developments, such as the expansion of Heathrow airport in London, to resolve issues earlier and avoid spiralling costs, according to a report this morning in The Times. Reed will set up a new board to track more than 50 major infrastructure projects, 'covering roads, railways, airports and power stations', a nod to the fact that the likes of Hinkley Point C and the Lower Thames Crossing are two schemes which have been blighted by years of delay. The move is likely to concern environmental campaigners, with the board aiming to spot potential challenges such as the £100m HS2 'bat tunnel', developed to protect wildlife and nature, but criticised by senior government figures including the prime minister and chancellor Rachel Reeves as an example of over-regulation. Senior Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) officials will meet with civil servant colleagues from the transport and energy departments on a monthly basis to discuss various infrastructure projects, flagging potential roadblocks to ministers at an earlier stage. Reed told The Times that 'complex planning rules' had blocked the development of new homes and businesses, while direct ministerial oversight would 'cut through the delays and get development moving faster'. In other developments: Sadiq Khan said Labour supporters would be 'delusional' if they did not recognise the difficulties the party had had since winning power in July 2024, as he admitted its first year in office has been difficult. The London mayor told an audience at the Edinburgh festival fringe that Labour needs to 'really pick things up'. Keir Starmer has been urged to recall parliament to 'impose immediate sanctions' on Israel in a joint letter signed by politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The letter urges the prime minister to 'act now' to exert pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza and for an end to arms sales to Israel. Downing Street has suggested that Keir Starmer would back a Ukraine peace deal without a ceasefire as a precondition as the UK's prime minister and other European leaders join Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for Ukraine talks with Donald Trump. The watchdog that monitors government ministers' professional appointments after leaving office has been criticised for clearing Grant Shapps, a former Conservative defence secretary, to join Cambridge Aerospace as long as he promises not to work on defence matters. Alex Salmond's niece has accused Nicola Sturgeon of tarnishing her uncle's reputation when he is no longer able to defend himself in order to promote her memoir. More than £300m given to English councils to help Ukrainian refugees into accommodation has not been spent, while thousands of them face homelessness. Patients in England now have greater access to important tests such as MRI scans and endoscopies in the evenings and weekends, the government has said, after increasing the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering out of hours services.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Reeves' new homes levy slammed as a ‘tax on ordinary Londoners' that will hit families hardest
Rachel Reeves ' plans for a new property tax on homes worth over £500,000 have been slammed as a 'tax on ordinary Londoners' that will hit families hardest. The chancellor is reportedly considering a shake-up that will see homeowners taxed on the sale of properties over the £500,000 threshold, with buyers then forced to pay a yearly tax on their value. It would replace the current stamp duty regime for first homes, which sees buyers pay a tax on the value of properties over £125,000, or £300,000 for first-time buyers. But Simon Gerrard, an estate agent who has long campaigned to reform stamp duty, warned it would amount to a 'London tax'. Speaking to The Independent, Mr Gerrard, chairman of Martyn Gerrard Estate Agents, said: 'Rightmove's latest figures for August show that the average price of a property in London is now £666,983. Upping taxes for properties over £500K is not making the wealthy pay their fair share, it's a tax on ordinary Londoners. 'It's already nearly impossible for normal people to start a family in London as it is. This London tax will only make it harder.' He said the threshold for the potential tax change should be significantly higher than £500,000 in London, or Labour would fail in its mission to support working people. He also warned that the potential tax change could distort the property market for homes worth around £500,000. Mr Gerrard warned: 'You're going to see a ceiling at the £500,000 threshold for that band of the market, as people avoid falling under the regime, and then a significant jump in values with nothing in between. 'Prices above £500,000 will skyrocket as sellers account for the losses caused by the tax that used to be paid by the buyer.' Currently, stamp duty is paid by those buying homes over £125,000, or £300,000 for first-time buyers. A first-time buyer purchasing a £500,000 home to live in would pay £10,000 of stamp duty under the current rules. If adopted, the new levy would be paid by owner-occupiers when they sell a home worth more than £500,000. The amount would be based on the property's value, with the rate set centrally and collected by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It would not replace stamp duty on second homes. Then, anyone having purchased a home worth more than £500,000 would pay an annual tax on the property under the proposals. It is believed the plans are aimed at targeting the financial gains made by property owners due to the huge increase in house prices. But critics warned it could push up asking prices for properties above the £500,000 threshold, with sellers looking to offset the payment of the tax. Ministers have already been briefed on the proposals, which could be rolled out during this parliament, The Guardian reports. Under one option, a national property levy would replace stamp duty on owner-occupied homes. In the longer term, a second stage could see a local property tax replace council tax, a move designed to repair the finances of struggling local authorities. No final decisions have been made, and Treasury sources stressed that while a national levy could be implemented in the coming years, reform of council tax would take longer and would probably depend on Labour winning a second term. The review reflects growing pressure on the chancellor to introduce more wealth-based taxes. Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has already urged Ms Reeves to consider measures that target property wealth, and Ms Reeves is under pressure to raise revenue without breaking Labour's pledge not to increase taxes on working people. The average house price in the UK was £272,664 in July, according to Nationwide. Current stamp duty receipts from primary residences vary significantly depending on the housing market, raising £11.6bn last year. Treasury officials believe a national property tax would be a more stable source of income and would eventually raise a similar amount. Unlike stamp duty, which currently applies to around 60 per cent of home sales and is paid by buyers, the new levy would affect only about a fifth of transactions. The proposals are informed by a 48-page report published last year by the centre-right think tank Onward. Written by Dr Tim Leunig, a former government adviser who helped devise the furlough scheme during the Covid pandemic, it set out a dual national and local 'proportional property tax' based on property values. Dr Leunig wrote: 'These proposals would make it easier and cheaper to move house, for a better job, or to be near family, as well as being fairer. It should not be the case that a terrace house in Burnley pays more than a mansion in Kensington – and it wouldn't be under these proposals.' A Treasury spokesman said: 'The best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy – which is our focus. Changes to tax and spend policy are not the only ways of doing this, as seen with our planning reforms, which are expected to grow the economy by £6.8bn and cut borrowing by £3.4bn 'We are committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible, which is why at last Autumn's Budget, we protected working people's payslips and kept our promise not to raise the basic, higher or additional rates of Income Tax, employee National Insurance, or VAT.'
