Would a Burnham government change council tax for older homeowners?

What changed

Keir Starmer resigned as Prime Minister on 22 June 2026. Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester Mayor, is the widely expected successor. His political track record is relevant to homeowners because he has been one of the more consistent voices in UK politics on property and land taxation — and because the direction those ideas point runs directly against the interests of people who are asset-rich in property terms.

The land value tax idea

In plain terms, a land value tax (LVT) is an annual charge based on the value of the land a property sits on, not the value of the building itself. Burnham has at various points floated an LVT as a potential replacement for council tax, or in combination with stamp duty reform.

The argument for LVT is that it captures the value of land — which rises in large part because of public infrastructure investment and the surrounding community, not the owner’s own effort — and recycles it back through taxation. It is popular with economists across the political spectrum for this reason.

For homeowners, the immediate question is always: how would this compare with what I pay now? That depends entirely on design, which is not yet known. But the general effect of LVT is to shift more of the burden onto high-value land in high-demand areas — and that typically means larger homes and more valuable properties, which is exactly the profile of many over-55 homeowners.

The council tax problem

Even without LVT, council tax reform is increasingly likely under any government. The current system is based on property valuations carried out in 1991 — over thirty years ago. A home worth £150,000 in 1991 may be worth £500,000 today, but the council tax band has not moved with it. This creates a system that bears almost no relationship to actual property values, and that many economists describe as deeply regressive: people in lower-value areas pay more as a proportion of their home’s value than people in higher-value areas.

Burnham has described this as “indefensible.” Reform in some form is genuinely more likely now than it has been for decades.

Why this matters specifically for over-55 homeowners

The profile that is most exposed to a shift toward taxing land and property more heavily is exactly the profile of many Verity Home readers: bought decades ago, significant paper gain in property value, but modest pension income. A household sitting on a £600,000 home with a fixed pension income has very different affordability dynamics from a household with the same home and a high earned income.

Any move toward current-value property taxation — whether through LVT or a revalued council tax — would increase the annual cost of holding a high-value home. For people with limited income flexibility, that creates pressure to think more carefully about what the property is actually worth to them in its current form, and whether there are better ways to structure their retirement finances.

This does not mean the answer is always equity release, or that anyone should act on speculation about policy that may never be confirmed. It does mean that understanding what your housing wealth could do for you — and what options exist — is a reasonable thing to explore regardless of what happens with any future Budget.