HMRC’s tax snoopers are set to photograph Britons’ homes without their permission in order to value them for Labour’s Mansion Tax. When you see a flash through the curtains in the night…
The Tories are campaigning against the tax, and shadow minister David Simmonds has obtained some details of the guidance issued by HMRC to its new army of snoopers:
“HMRC provides guidance to Valuation Office caseworkers undertaking property inspections that internal and external photographs are an important part of a property survey Where photographs are taken from within the property boundary, the occupier’s permission must be obtained. Permission is not required for photographs taken from the public highway Where photographs form part of Council Tax casework, they are retained in accordance with the Valuation Office’s information retention schedules.”
Photographed from the street…
Meanwhile, HM Land Registry is sharing title register information and with HMRC on a monthly basis in order to nail down property details. Next step: satellite images…
Lucy Powell told Sky News that the Ed Miliband-Russell Brand interview happened in part because the ‘social media age’ had not begun by 2015:
“Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren’t in the social media age at the time – where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn’t know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.”