Andy Burnham's Property Tax Plans: What Sellers Need to Know

By Lisa Hayes · 25 July 2026

Britain has a new Prime Minister, and for once the change at the top matters directly to your front door. Andy Burnham took over at Number 10 on 20 July 2026, and he arrives with a property-tax wishlist that could, in time, scrap stamp duty and council tax altogether and replace them with a single annual charge based on what your home is worth. Nothing has been legislated, nothing has been confirmed, and no bill has been published. But if you're thinking of selling, the direction of travel is worth understanding now, because it changes how you should think about timing.

What has actually happened?

Andy Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as Prime Minister on 20 July 2026. That's the fact. Everything else you've read this week — the annual property tax, the stamp duty rumours, the mansion-tax threshold moving — sits somewhere between "he's said he likes the idea" and "a newspaper reckons he might". Keep that distinction in your head, because a lot of the coverage has blurred it.

Why does a new PM suddenly matter to homeowners? Because Burnham has spent years being unusually specific about property taxation. He's called council tax "highly regressive" and its 1991-based valuations "not justifiable". He wrote in The Guardian, back in 2010, about replacing stamp duty with a land value tax. So when he walks into Downing Street, the property industry doesn't have to guess at his instincts — it already knows them. That's why estate agents, mortgage brokers and tax advisers have spent the past few days talking about almost nothing else.

Rightmove's property expert Colleen Babcock put it neatly in the firm's July house price report: a new Prime Minister "presents an opportunity to make housing a renewed priority, with action needed to support affordability, mobility and the delivery of more homes." Translation from industry-speak: please, someone, make it cheaper and easier to move.

What is Andy Burnham actually proposing on property tax?

Here's the honest version, stripped of the headline hype. Burnham has floated, backed or been linked to four separate ideas. They're at very different stages, and only one of them is anywhere near being government policy.

1. Replacing council tax with a proportional property tax

This is the big one. According to The Times, Burnham is a fan of a plan from the campaign group Fairer Share, which wants to bin both council tax and stamp duty and replace them with a single annual property tax set at 0.48% of a home's value. The HomeOwners Alliance has run the maths: on a £300,000 home, that works out at about £1,440 a year, every year, for as long as you own it.

The appeal is obvious. Council tax bands are still based on 1991 valuations, which is genuinely absurd in 2026 — plenty of homes are taxed as though the last thirty years of price growth never happened. A proportional tax fixes that. It would also, in the Fairer Share version, scrap the so-called "bedroom tax" and apply a higher 0.96% rate to second homes, empty properties and homes owned by overseas buyers.

The catch? A percentage-of-value tax has no upper limit, whereas council tax bands cap what the most expensive homes pay. Owners in high-value areas — much of London and the South East — could face a meaningfully bigger annual bill. And a tax you pay forever feels very different from one you pay once.

2. Replacing stamp duty with a land value tax

Burnham's long-standing view is that stamp duty is a bad tax. On that, frankly, he has a lot of company. Stamp duty is a levy on the act of moving, which is a strange thing for a country with a mobility problem to tax so heavily. It penalises the family trading up, clobbers anyone making a sideways move, and makes it dearer for older homeowners to downsize and free up a larger home for the next family. If a reform genuinely lowered the cost of moving, most people trying to sell would welcome it. See our plain-English guide to property jargon explained if terms like land value tax make your eyes glaze over.

3. Lowering the mansion tax threshold

The "mansion tax" — officially the High Value Council Tax Surcharge — is already law. It applies to homes worth more than £2 million in 2026 and will be collected alongside council tax from April 2028. The Mail on Sunday has reported that Burnham could lower the threshold to £1.5 million, which would pull an estimated 150,000 more households into it. More on that below.

4. Aligning capital gains tax with income tax

At a campaign launch in June, Burnham said he wants to look "in detail" at bringing capital gains tax rates into line with income tax. Right now, gains on residential property (think second homes and buy-to-lets) are taxed at 18% and 24%. Align them with income tax and you're looking at 20%, 40% or 45%. Your own home stays exempt under Private Residence Relief — that hasn't changed.

Idea	Status	Who it hits hardest
Annual property tax (0.48% of value) replacing council tax + stamp duty	Speculation — Burnham reportedly a fan; no proposal published	Owners of higher-value homes; long-term owners who'd move rarely
Stamp duty replaced by land value tax	Long-held Burnham view; nothing tabled	Could help movers if it cuts the cost of moving
Mansion tax threshold £2m → £1.5m	Reported speculation; base surcharge already law from April 2028	~150,000 more homes near the £1.5m mark
CGT aligned with income tax	Burnham wants to "look in detail"	Second-home and buy-to-let sellers (not your main home)

So is stamp duty being scrapped or not?

No. Not today, not next month, and not on any timetable anyone can point to. This is the part the breathless headlines keep skating over, so let me be blunt about it: as of now, nothing has changed. Council tax is exactly what it was last week. Stamp duty is exactly what it was last week. There is no published plan, no consultation, no draft legislation.

What you've got is a Prime Minister with known sympathies and a stack of newspaper reports about what he might do. That's not nothing — instincts at the top shape budgets — but it's a very long way from a change you can plan a house sale around. Reform of this scale is politically radioactive. Any government that revalues every home in the country and hands some households a bigger annual bill is picking a fight with millions of voters at once. It tends to get talked about far more often than it gets done.

So if you're sitting on a decision to sell, waiting to "see what Burnham does" is, in my view, a mistake. You could be waiting a very long time for something that never lands in the form the headlines promised.

What would a single annual property tax mean if you're selling?

Let's play it out, because it's genuinely interesting. Suppose the Fairer Share model happened more or less as described: stamp duty gone, council tax gone, replaced by an annual charge of 0.48% of your home's value.

For most people trying to move, scrapping stamp duty is a straightforward win. The upfront cost of buying your next home falls, which frees up cash and, over time, tends to grease the wheels of the whole market. More transactions usually means a healthier market for sellers too — chains move faster, buyers have more confidence, and homes spend less time sitting around. If you've ever watched a sale collapse because a buyer's budget got eaten by moving costs, you'll understand why brokers are quietly hopeful about this one.

But an annual, uncapped tax on value creates clear winners and losers, and it's worth being honest about who sits where.

My honest take: a shift from a tax on moving to a tax on owning would, on balance, be good for market activity and therefore good for most ordinary sellers. The people with real cause for concern are owners of £1.5m-plus homes, where the sums get large and the caps disappear. If that's you, this is worth watching closely and worth a conversation with a tax adviser rather than a comment section.

The mansion tax question: would more homes really get caught?

This is the proposal most likely to have teeth in the near term, because the underlying surcharge is already law. The High Value Council Tax Surcharge applies to homes over £2 million in 2026 and starts being collected alongside council tax from April 2028. Burnham is reported to be considering dropping that entry point to £1.5 million.

If he did, roughly 150,000 additional households could be dragged in, according to reports. And here's the wrinkle that catches people out: "mansion" is a wild overstatement. In parts of London and the commuter belt, £1.5 million buys a perfectly normal family house — four bedrooms, a garden, nothing that would make you think of a stately home. Threshold-based property taxes always create a cluster of homes bunched just below the line, and sellers in that band should think carefully about pricing and timing.

If your home is anywhere near £1.5 million, the sensible move is to get a clear, realistic valuation now, so you actually know which side of a future line you sit on. Our guide on how much your house is worth is a good place to start, and you can always check what's happening to house prices in your area for context.

What about capital gains and inheritance tax?

Two quick things, because they come up every time tax reform is in the air.

First, capital gains tax. Aligning CGT with income tax would raise the bill for people selling second homes and buy-to-lets — potentially a big jump, from 24% to as much as 45% for higher earners. Critics point out it could actually reduce the tax take, because owners simply hold on and wait for a friendlier government. If you own an investment property and you've been mulling a sale, it's reasonable to factor this uncertainty in, though again, nothing has been announced. Our guide to capital gains tax when selling walks through the reliefs and allowances.

Second, and this is the reassuring part for most readers: your main home remains exempt from capital gains tax. If you're selling the house you actually live in, none of the CGT chatter applies to you. It's aimed squarely at second homes and investment property.

The thing that actually moves your sale this week: the rate decision

Here's where I'd gently redirect your attention. Property-tax reform is a story about the next few years. Mortgage rates are a story about the next few days — and they matter far more to whether your buyer can actually proceed.

The Bank of England announces its next base rate decision on Thursday 30 July 2026. The rate currently sits at 3.75%, held there since the start of the year. At the last meeting on 18 June, the committee voted 7-2 to hold. Most economists expect another hold on Thursday.

What's changed — and this is the genuinely important bit — is the mood about what comes next. After a spring when everyone assumed the next move was down, the oil-price spike from renewed conflict in the Middle East has flipped the script. As of 22 July, financial markets were pricing in two rate rises by March next year. That's a remarkable turnaround, and it's why the cheap-mortgage optimism of early 2026 has quietly evaporated.

• 3.75%Bank of England base rate (held since January)
• 30 Julynext rate decision
• 4.92%average two-year fixed rate (Rightmove)
• 2 riseswhat markets now price in by March 2027

For a seller, this is what to take from it. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate is around 4.92%, according to Rightmove's daily tracker. That's down a touch from 5.07% last month, but well up from 4.25% back in February, before the Middle East flared up. Lenders are still competing hard — there are sub-4% deals around for buyers with big deposits — but the era of rates falling in a straight line is, for now, over. Your buyer's borrowing power is tighter than it was in the spring, and that feeds directly into what they can offer you. If a chain looks wobbly, our guide on how to deal with a broken property chain is worth a read.

The market you're actually selling into right now

Strip away the politics and the rate speculation, and what does the ground look like? Cooler than the headlines of six months ago, but not falling off a cliff.

Rightmove's July index showed the average asking price of a newly listed home fell 1.0% (about £3,832) to £372,359. A July dip is normal — summer always is — but this one was five times the ten-year average July fall of 0.2%. Blame a genuinely odd summer: the World Cup, a proper heatwave, and a change of Prime Minister all pulled buyers' attention away at once. There are a lot of homes for sale, close to a 12-year high for the time of year, so buyers have choice and they're using it.

But — and this matters — the market isn't seizing up. The number of sales agreed in the first half of 2026 was 6% below the same period in 2025, yet level with 2024. Buyers are still out there. They're just fussier, and they're rewarding realistic pricing. The standout stat from Rightmove: nearly three-quarters of homes that sold this year did so without the seller having to drop the asking price. Price it right first time and you're in a strong position. Chase the market up and you'll be the one sitting on the portal watching viewings dry up. If you want to see how long homes are lingering before they shift, here's how to check how long a property has been on the market.

"This month's larger-than-normal price fall reflects the reality of a market where buyers have plenty of choice and sellers are having to work harder to stand out and attract them," said Rightmove's Colleen Babcock. "Pricing remains critical, and it's remarkable that nearly three-quarters of homes that have sold so far this year have done so without needing an asking price reduction."

One more thing on geography, because averages hide a lot. The national headline is a two-speed story. While London and the South East have gone soft — and they're exactly the areas most exposed to any value-based property tax — parts of the North and the Midlands are still ticking along. A Burnham reform that penalised high-value homes and rewarded modest ones would, in effect, widen that north-south gap further. If you're selling in a cheaper region, the policy noise from Westminster is far less relevant to you than getting your asking price and your presentation right. If you're selling a pricey home in the South East, it pays to be more alert — not alarmed, but alert.

What should you do now if you're thinking of selling?

Let me be practical, because that's what actually helps. Here's how I'd approach it if you were sitting across my kitchen table.

• Don't wait for Burnham. Tax reform of this scale is slow, uncertain and often watered down or dropped. Timing a house sale around a rumour is a recipe for missing your moment. Sell when it's right for your life, not the news cycle.
• Get a realistic valuation. Overpricing is the single biggest reason homes stick in this market. Know your genuine number — not the flattering one — before you list. Start with our home valuation guide.
• Price for a choosy buyer. With supply near a 12-year high, you're competing for attention. The homes selling without reductions are the ones priced correctly on day one.
• Factor in tighter mortgages. Your buyer's budget is under more pressure than it was in the spring. A well-priced, chain-free proposition is more attractive than ever.
• If speed matters, weigh your options. If a slow open-market sale doesn't suit your circumstances — a job move, a chain break, a probate deadline — it's worth understanding routes like a fast house sale or a genuine cash house-buying company, provided you compare offers properly and go in with your eyes open.

The through-line here is control. You can't control what the Chancellor puts in the autumn Budget, whether the Bank raises rates in November, or how long Andy Burnham lasts. You can control your asking price, your presentation, and how well-prepared your sale is. That's where your energy is best spent.

The bottom line

A new Prime Minister with strong views on property tax is a story worth watching, not one to panic over. Nothing has changed about what you'll pay to buy or sell today. If anything, the parts of Burnham's agenda that might actually reach the statute book — scrapping stamp duty, modernising a 1991-era council tax — would help most ordinary movers rather than hurt them. The genuine near-term pressure is coming from mortgage rates, and that's a reason to price sensibly and move decisively rather than sit and wait.

If you're weighing up a sale, the smartest thing you can do is see what your home is really worth and what a realistic buyer would pay — today, not in some hypothetical future. Compare your options, get more than one offer, and make the call on your terms. You can start a free, no-obligation valuation here and see where you stand before anyone in Westminster changes the rules.