Kevin Hollinrake, shadow housing minister, said: “This tax should be used to keep council tax bills down, or to build affordable housing. Labour is doing neither of these.
“There has been a cavalier approach to implementing it, with Labour doing no research on its effect on the housing market and leaving local residents to pick up the tab.
“Labour is using this tax as a club to hammer middle England, and trying to pull the wool over the eyes of hard-working families while they’re at it.”
Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, said: “Owning property used to be a right and a freedom. Today it is an excuse for the Government to use extortion.”
Mrs Rayner’s department has previously refused to investigate the impact of the second home council tax raid on local economies, housing markets or tourism. Instead, the Government said it was up to individual councils to decide whether it was “effective”.
