The Fairer Share campaign is pushing to replace council tax and stamp duty with an annual property tax set at 0.48% of property value, rising to 0.96% for second homes, empty properties and non-resident-owned homes. The proposal leaves undefined whether buy-to-let portfolios would attract the base or double rate, creating a potential cost variance of £6,000 to £12,000 annually for a landlord holding five properties worth £250,000 each.
The boundary between "second home" and "investment property" carries material cost consequences. The published Fairer Share model does not state that every privately let property would automatically attract the higher 0.96% rate, but it conflates occasional-use second homes with commercial lettings under a single bracket. A £250,000 BTL property would incur £1,200 annually at the base rate or £2,400 at the higher rate. Scale that across a ten-property portfolio and the difference is £12,000 versus £24,000 before any mortgage cost.
The proposal would also shift tax liability from occupiers to owners. Council tax currently falls on tenants in let properties, meaning landlords carry no direct council tax expense on their BTL stock. Moving to an owner-paid annual charge represents a new holding cost that affects net yield calculations and rent-setting decisions immediately.
What the numbers mean for portfolios
A landlord with five properties valued at £250,000 each would pay £6,000 annually at the 0.48% base rate or £12,000 at the 0.96% higher rate. For a £500,000 property, the annual charge would be £2,400 or £4,800 respectively. These are gross figures before accounting for any transitional protection or payment deferrals, which the Fairer Share campaign mentions but does not detail.
The yield impact is immediate. An additional £2,400 annual charge on a £500,000 property represents a 0.48% reduction in gross yield at the base rate, or 0.96% at the higher rate, before mortgage costs. For portfolios carrying debt, that reduction comes directly off net cashflow. If the higher rate applies to BTL portfolios, a landlord with ten £300,000 properties would face £28,800 annually, equivalent to nearly 1% of total asset value in new tax.
The proposal also claims to abolish stamp duty on owner-occupied homes while retaining it for second home and non-resident buyers. If that category includes BTL purchases, landlords would continue to pay SDLT at acquisition and then shoulder an annual charge that owner-occupiers buying the same property would avoid on both counts.
Who benefits and who pays
The Fairer Share campaign claims more than 100,000 petition signatories and estimates that London homeowners would contribute an additional £7.5 billion annually, though the source of that estimate is not attributed and the methodology is not published. The proposal includes transitional protection and payment deferrals for homeowners in valuable properties who lack the income to meet their bills, but does not address viability for landlords with leveraged portfolios.
Owner-occupiers in lower-value homes would likely see bills fall compared to current council tax, particularly in Band D and below. High-value London homeowners and landlords classified under the higher rate would carry the cost increase. The tax-deferred elderly homeowner in a £1 million property is the intended beneficiary of the deferral mechanism, not the portfolio landlord managing ten mortgaged BTL properties.
The political framing is also uncertain. The source material refers to "Prime Minister Andy Burnham," which is incorrect. Andy Burnham is Mayor of Greater Manchester. Keir Starmer is the current Prime Minister. Burnham has previously supported proportional property taxation in principle, but has stated that major reform is not imminent. There is no evidence of Treasury consultation, government policy commission work or legislative drafting.