Tessa Jowell says slap tax on empty homes

Tessa Jowell has launched an attack on London property owners who leave their houses and flats empty in the midst of a housing crisis in the capital. In an article for The Independent, the potential Mayoral candidate slams the “global super rich” who buy up property as financial “assets to appreciate, rather than homes in which to live”.

Jowell claims that properties left unused could house tens of thousands of people:

“In a city enduring a housing crisis those empty homes could house 55,000.

“That’s a scandal and it’s time to get tough. Absentee owners should live in the house they own or sell up – or face uncapped charges until they do. No dodges or clever schemes to get round that.”

The article allows us a glimpse of what kind of issues Jowell could run on: “a more affordable city where transport doesn’t cost the earth, no-one is locked out of work by the cost of looking after their child, and crucially where a decent home is within reach for us all.” Transport, families, and housing – all tied together with a cost of living narrative.

She also returns to the idea of “one London, not two”, which appeared prominently in her interview with the Evening Standard last week, suggesting that the Dulwich and West Norwood MP could even have settled on a slogan for her London Mayor bid. Here, she expands a little on this theme of inequality, saying London is “becoming divided between the rich and the rest; living together, but growing apart”.

Jowell, along with other possible Mayoral candidates Diane Abbott and David Lammy, has been a critic of Labour’s Mansion Tax proposal and today’s article could be seen as an alternative method for raising money from owners of expensive properties.