Four London councils have blasted Labour’s mansion tax - claiming it’s worse than the 1696 property tax which saw residents bricking up their windows.
The levy will see homes valued at more than £2million having to pay between £2,500 and £7,500 each year from April 2028.
Some 165,000 homes are set to affected - most of them in the capital.
Wandsworth, Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster, and Richmond councils have written to Chancellor John Healey urging him to reverse the planned levy.
They say residents will be forced to pay over £270m each year, which would be more than half of the £400m which is expected to be raised.
The group of councils say their residents will hand over £270 million each year under the plans - more than half of the £400 million which the OBR expects to be raised.
“This is a badly thought-out policy: one with limited revenue-raising ability, high implementation costs and a hugely disproportionate impact on our residents,” the letter from the local authority states.
Peter Graham, Wandsworth’s cabinet member for finance, said: “This is the most badly designed tax on properties since the one on windows, 330 years ago.”
The window tax of 1696 saw homeowners across England charged based on the number of windows their properties had.
It saw people board up windows and even ventilation gaps in a bit to avoid the levy - posing and health risk to residents, while the tax led to higher rents as owners passed on the extra cost to tenants.
In response to the councils’ criticism of the wealth tax, a Treasury spokesperson said: “This tax is expected to raise more than £400 million a year to help to fund public services and it will address a longstanding unfairness in our country, where a Band D home in Darlington or Blackpool pays more in council tax than a £10 million mansion in Mayfair.”
