Concerns have been raised by the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, that the so-called mansion tax may well lead to vicars being evicted from their homes.
From April 2028 properties worth over two million will be hit by a £2,500 or more annual council tax surcharge. At the higher end, the charge could be as much as £7,500.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the bishop warned that many vicarages, particularly in poorer parts of the country, would not be able to afford the additional financial burden.
“Property values can be very high even in areas with quite high deprivation. If you look at east London [for example], it wouldn’t be hard to find congregations who are largely struggling in lower paid jobs in a parish where the vicarage is the only place for meetings to take place.
“There is no way that people in an East End parish would be able to pay this mansion tax on top of everything else they’re paying.”
Church law requires that the clergy live within their parish.
Bishop Walker added, “I can give permission to a vicar to live outside the parish if it’s necessary. Just occasionally, there’s a property just outside the boundaries of the parish and I would give the vicar permission to live there.
“But we don’t do that lightly. The whole point of the residence law is they should know their own people walking the streets, going to the shops and they should know their community. If they end up commuting from the suburbs, you lose that.”
Bishop Walker called upon the government to exempt vicars from the new charge.
Labour's tax policies have created additional challenges for Christians.
Already 50 private schools, many of them Christian, have closed down due to Labour’s imposition of VAT on school fees, effectively denying low cost private and Christian-based education to working people on lower incomes.
The government is also considering ending an already scaled down scheme that exempted historic churches from VAT on repairs, a move that could put up to 260 Anglican places of worship at risk.
