Jeremy Hunt has promised to voluntarily pay more capital gains tax on his properties so that he does not benefit from a tax cut he introduced.
The chancellor refused to disclose how many houses he owned but said he would pay a higher tax rate on any proceeds from selling his property.
Asked on ITV’s Peston programme on Wednesday night how many houses he had, Hunt said: “These are personal questions.”
When announcing a capital gains tax cut in the budget on Wednesday, Hunt aimed a jibe at Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, who has faced questions about the sale of her former council house. “I see the deputy leader of the Labour party paying close attention, given her multiple dwellings,” he said.
Hunt cut the rate of capital gains tax paid by higher-rate taxpayers when selling second homes from 28% to 24%.
Asked whether he himself would benefit from this, Hunt told Peston: “I won’t benefit from the CGT change. When it comes to the properties I own, it would be wrong to benefit from a direct decision like that, so I will pay tax at the previous rate.”
He confirmed that he would voluntarily pay 28% capital gains tax if he sold one of his properties.
Pressed on why he would not say how many houses he had when he had joked about the sale of Rayner’s home in the Commons, Hunt said: “I was teasing Angela Rayner. We declare all these things.”
According to the ministerial register of interests, Hunt and his wife own Mare Pond Properties Limited, a property holding company. His parliamentary interests say this includes seven apartments in Southampton.
The chancellor also owns a half share of a holiday house in Italy and a half share of an office building in London, according to his declarations. His ministerial register states that some proceeds from his “residential investment property” are donated to charity.
In 2018, when he was health secretary, Hunt had to apologise for a delay in notifying Companies House and parliamentary authorities about his interest in the Mare Pond Properties company.
Hunt and his family are thought to live between three houses in the UK. They have use of the official chancellor’s residence at No 11 Downing Street.
According to the Evening Standard, Hunt owns a £1.7m townhouse in Pimlico, near Westminster, which he bought in 2010. His personal website says he divides his time between London and his constituency home in Hambledon, a village in Surrey.
Hunt’s seven flats in Southampton are part of a luxury waterside development called Ocean Village. The value of his property is not known, but according to Rightmove, individual flats in the development sold last year for an average of £225,7111.
Some second-home owners reacted angrily to the budget because Hunt abolished tax breaks for furnished holiday lets, such as those advertised on Airbnb. He said this was to make more property available for residents in tourist hotspots such as Cornwall and central London.
“I am concerned that this tax regime is creating a distortion, meaning that there are not enough properties available for long-term rental by local people,” Hunt told MPs in his budget speech on Wednesday. “So, to make the tax system work better for local communities, I am going to abolish the furnished holiday lettings regime.”
It comes after Downing Street revealed that the prime minister was recused from policy talks on the scrapping of the non-dom tax status to avoid any conflict of interest.
Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, who owns shares in Infosys, the Indian IT company founded by her father, is a non-domiciled UK resident, which means she does not have to pay UK taxes on her overseas income.
After her non-dom tax status was revealed while Sunak was chancellor, Murty announced she would voluntarily pay UK tax on all her worldwide income.
