Rachel Reeves set her sights on high-value properties in England at last year’s Budget, announcing that a surcharge on homes worth £2m or more would be introduced from April 2028.

Homeowners with properties above the threshold would pay an annual surcharge via their council tax bills, starting at £2,500 and rising to £7,500 for properties worth £5m or more. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which is responsible for tracking council tax bands for homes in England and Wales, has since warned that £1.5m houses would also need to be revalued.

Around 200,000 properties in total would need to be revalued under the incoming policy.

The VOA – a government quango – will be subsumed into HMRC from April. It is expected to start the valuation process this year.

In a parliamentary question, Sir James Cleverly, the shadow local government secretary, asked: “How many of the additional headcount of 1,000 VOA staff are assigned to work on the council tax surcharge?”

Dan Tomlinson, a Labour MP, responded on Monday: “The VOA is developing its resourcing and recruitment plans for the high-value council tax surcharge work.” However, he said it could not yet confirm how many of the 1,000 recruits would focus solely on the mansion tax.

The VOA previously said that it would employ “professional valuers” to assess properties potentially in line for the new surcharge, as well as recruiting additional staff to “support” this work.

Mansion tax: Council tax Surcharge charging structure

Last month, Jonathan Russell, chief executive of the VOA, told the Treasury select committee hearing that £1.5m houses would also be in scope for valuation to “make sure we are not missing anything”.

He said that between 150,000 and 200,000 houses could be affected, with all properties previously valued at up to £5m being rechecked.

Property experts warned that the mansion tax could trigger a wave of valuations challenges that could “clog up the system for years”.

Brendan Kay, of estate agents Parkers, said: “High-value homeowners are typically well advised and financially literate, and many will scrutinise every detail of how their property has been assessed.

“That creates a substantial administrative burden and risks clogging up the system for years.”

Mansion tax to hit Londoners the hardest

It is understood that a share of the 1,000 recruits would go to customs tax collections.

From March 2029, customs duty relief will be removed from goods imported into Britain that are worth £135 or less, otherwise known as low-value imports.

A VOA spokesman said: “The VOA is developing its resourcing and recruitment plans for the high-value council tax surcharge work.

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“It is not yet possible to confirm how many staff will be allocated to the surcharge activity, out of the additional 1,000 headcount for HMRC as a whole.”

HMRC was approached for comment.

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