Burnham weighs replacing council tax and stamp duty, as petition forces Commons debate

A petition calling for council tax and stamp duty to be scrapped and replaced with a single property tax has passed 100,000 signatures, meaning it will be debated in Parliament. The petition, organised by the campaign group Fairer Share, backs a Proportional Property Tax: a flat annual charge of 0.48% of a home's current value, replacing both taxes outright. It argues that council tax bands, still based on 1991 property values, no longer reflect what homes are worth or what people can afford, and that arrears have climbed to £8.3bn. Advocates claim 77% of households would be better off under the change, with a £300,000 home paying roughly £1,440 a year. 

The decision now sits with Andy Burnham, who used his first major broadcast interview as Prime Minister to suggest wealthier homeowners in the South could face higher property taxes as a way to "create some fairness" for the north of England. Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Burnham said people in Greater Manchester pay far more council tax than owners of much larger homes in London, and called that unfair. Options he mentioned include the proportional property tax, a land value tax charged on the value of the land a property sits on rather than the building, or simply lowering the threshold for the mansion tax surcharge announced at last year's Budget from £2m to £1.5m. He ruled none of them out, the Telegraph reported. 

The i Paper reported separately that the Government is actively weighing up the proportional property tax and the land value tax as the two leading contenders to replace council tax and stamp duty. More than 100 Labour MPs are said to be pushing for reform, including members of a newly formed Labour MPs for Council Tax Reform caucus and the Red Wall group, and Treasury officials were reportedly looking at the options even before Burnham took office. 

The south-north gap sits at the heart of the petition's case. Council tax in Hartlepool works out at 13.5 times higher than in Westminster relative to local property values, the Telegraph reported. A land value tax or a proportional property tax would both push bills up in London and the South East and down further north, because they're tied to current values rather than 1991 bands. Lowering the mansion tax threshold wouldn't have that effect on the north, but would raise more from higher-value homes in the south. 

Not everyone in Burnham's camp thinks this can move fast. Lord Blunkett, a close ally, told the i Paper a land value tax would be "politically problematic" and could create winners and losers across the housing market, arguing it isn't realistic in the short term. Government officials have also briefed Politico's Playbook to play down the i Paper's report, suggesting no decisions are imminent. Burnham has said he intends to stick to Labour's fiscal rules and its 2024 manifesto, which ruled out raising income tax, VAT and National Insurance but made no mention of council tax. Any decisions are likely to wait for the autumn Budget. 

For brokers, it's the direction that counts for now, not which model wins out. Burnham's stamp duty plans could unstick a stalled housing market if a phased abolition removes the upfront cost that puts buyers off moving. Clients are already pausing purchase decisions in anticipation of reform, and the size of the bills higher-value properties in the South could face is becoming clearer. Brokers with clients in London and the South East may want to raise it now, well before the Budget.