Labour looks to have dropped plans to extend the so-called ‘mansion tax’ to thousands more homes at the Budget.
Chancellor John Healey was widely believed to be considering reducing the threshold for properties paying the levy from £2million to £1.5million.
That would have doubled the number of properties hit by the raid to 272,000, with analysts warning a staggering one in four detached homes in London would be brought into scope.
The charges of up to £7,500 a year would also fall even more disproportionately on the capital and the South East, as four-fifths of those affected would be there.
The idea had sparked
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