Bristol Conservatives have condemned Momentum's plans to treble council tax to £10,000-a-year in the city.
Last week, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that the pro-Corbyn organisation responsible for Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Leader supports an initiative to tax those with the largest homes with a £10,000-a-year council tax bill.
"The idea proposed by Momentum is straight out of the 1970s and reeks of class war envy"
Councillor Mark Weston, the Conservative councillor for the Henbury and Brentry area of Bristol and the Leader of Bristol Conservatives, provided Blasting News with an official response to the story: "The idea proposed by Momentum is straight out of the 1970s and reeks of class war envy.
It might look good on paper, but, ignoring the fact we would have to have a costly referendum on the idea (a referendum that would likely be lost), it establishes a dangerous precedent because once the socialists run out of money (and they always do) they will then target the next council tax band down.
"The cycle will then be repeated until everyone is taxed into oblivion in the pursuit of some unachievable Marxist utopia. It is a daft idea driven by dogma and ideology and I hope it is given the short shrift that it deserves."
The Daily Telegraph reported that far-left activists believe they can rescue council services from Tory cuts through increasing council tax for mansions by two-hundred per cent.
According to the broadsheet paper, 15,266 properties, which consist of Bristol's top eight per cent of homes, would be eligible for the left-wing group's plans. They claim the changes could raise £25.8 million.
"Momentum's policy would cause their council tax to increase to £10,800-a-year"
So far, households that come under the top council tax band- Band H- pay £3,559.50 a year.
Momentum's policy would cause their council tax to increase to £10,800-a-year.
Other ideas the pro-Corbyn group have experimented with include an increase in parking charges, the implementation of a congestion charge and the possibility of a tourism tax, similar to the one that has been suggested in Wales.
"This proposal is very cynical"
Councillor Gary Hopkins, Leader of the Bristol Liberal Democrat Group, joined his Tory colleague in attacking Momentum's idea. He told Blasting News: "There is a strong argument for replacing council tax with one more closely related to people's ability to pay, but this proposal is very cynical.
"They seek to punish some but persuade others that it does not affect them. The Liberal Democrats, if we are stuck with council tax, would be in favour of a broader range of council tax bands as there is little difference now between ordinary properties and millionaire pads. There is a huge amount of evidence that the banding needs updating as some higher value properties are on the lowest band and some of the poorest areas with less valuable property are paying higher taxes."
The Bristol Labour Party and Momentum were approached for comments, but they both declined to do so.
Labour's manifesto at the 2017 General Election contained plans to replace council tax with a Land Value Tax, dubbed "the garden tax" by various media outlets. The manifesto failed to outline how the tax would be applied, but the Conservatives argued tax on the average family property would increase from £1,185 to £3,837 per year, a raise of £2,651 or 224 per cent.
Opponents of the measure suggest it would enable house prices to decrease, placing homeowners at risk of negative equity and forcing families to sell off their gardens to developers to ease their tax burden.
Council tax was introduced in 1991 by John Major's government to replace the poll tax that the Thatcher administration introduced to Scotland in 1989 and the rest of the UK in 1990.
The tax is differentiated based on numerous 'bands', with Band A being the cheapest one.
Band H properties are worth £320,000 compared to when council tax was introduced in the early 1990s, when the homes were last valued for tax purposes.
