The mansion tax is good for London, good for the NHS, and good for redistributive politics

It is argued by Tories such as Boris Johnson that the mansion tax is anti-London because most homes affected are in the capital. This is nonsense. We might as well argue that any redistributive measure is automatically proportionately anti-London because of the pockets of wealth concentrated here. We could say that a higher top rate of tax is anti-London, given the higher number of wealthy people here. That’s a dead end.

London does indeed need greater power to use the wealth at its fingertips to invest in its future and redistribute from the richest to those on middle and lower incomes.  The rises in council tax during my period as mayor that sustained public services like fire and the police also did this, albeit relatively crudely. In an extremely crude form the congestion charge does this. Should I have been re-elected, we would have continued that policy less crudely through the gas-guzzler charge on the highest polluting cars such as Chelsea Tractors.

We definitely do require stronger devolved financial powers specifically for London that are less crude than those mechanisms. But to conclude from that that we don’t need the mansion tax is plain wrong. The two are not mutually exclusive.

There is an important point here. I have argued for more powers for London all my life. But I have also always argued that London should contribute towards the rest of the country – because Labour is a democratic socialist party that believes in equality, in the power of redistributive economics to raise investment, grow the economy and therefore eliminate glaring differences in wealth and opportunity.

We were able to make the case for Crossrail and other big investments in London on a progressive basis that included London paying its fair share. London contributes to Britain through its economic dynamism, including to the tax take in the economy, which can then be redistributed within London and to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the other regions of England. In fact we argued for investment in London like Crossrail to make sure London continues to pay its way in the long-term. To sustain its dynamism we need the modern infrastructure to plan for the future. At no point did we argue that London should not pay its way, nor should we. It is not anti-London for London to contribute to Britain. It is fair.

The mansion tax proposal, including big contributions from the most expensive housing in London, will help services across the UK. It has been falsely characterised – including by David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions this week – as only helping Scotland. But people in England from Newcastle to Cornwall will see the benefits to their health service too.  London itself will inevitably be a big beneficiary. We are talking here about a health policy for a Labour government that will provide 20,000 nurses 8,000 GPs 5,000 care workers 3,000 midwives for England alone. The idea that this will not benefit health services in the capital is a fantasy. London is the most populace part of England. Of course it will get extra nurses and other health-care workers under Labour’s plans.

Boris Johnson wants to be the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Health services in Uxbridge will not be helped by blocking extra nurses or doctors for the NHS in London. If he were serious about Londoners he would already be making the case to Andy Burnham about how many extra nurses, doctors, carers and midwives London’s NHS should get under Labour.

When you see the Tories blustering that the mansion tax is anti-London, you know that what they don’t want you to hear is that it is pro-the majority, including the majority of Londoners.

In my lifetime I have seen property-based wealth accumulate on a vast scale, almost entirely untouched by serious political debate.

What Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have done with the flagship policy of a mansion tax, earmarked to pay for the expansion of staffing in the NHS, is to establish a very progressive principle of making untapped wealth work for the country. The mansion tax is the anti-Poll Tax. It is enormously popular in every part of the country. In my experience it is very popular in London too, and including amongst Labour and trade union members in the capital.

We should not look a gift horse in the mouth. We’ve wanted redistributive politics for a long time.  And many of us have argued that property wealth is under-taxed. Now it’s on offer, let’s fight for it every day until polling day.