A £136M APARTMENT, BUT THE COUNCIL TAX IS BELOW THE NATIONAL AVERAGE

First published by: This is Money

The Rich GET Richer

Owners of apartments in the luxury One Hyde Park development in central London the most expensive of which sold for £136 million to Ukrainian mining tycoon Rinat Akhmetov will pay just £755.60 in Council Tax to Westminster Council for the year 2011-12.

Residents will pay an extra £619.64 to the Greater London Authority, but the total annual charge of £1,375.24 will still be less than the average tax paid on a band D property in Britain. This is £1,397.51, according to figures compiled by public sector accountancy group CIPFA.

Westminster Council's Labour opposition leader Paul Dimoldenberg said: 'It's extremely unfair that some of the wealthiest people in the world should pay below average Council Tax.' Luxury: The total annual charge will be less than the average band D property. The Liberal Democrats have suggested that the most valuable properties should be subject to a separate 'mansion tax'.

Westminster's charges are low because the council raises £50 million a year in West End parking charges. Its Council Tax is the second-lowest in Britain after Wandsworth, in south-west London. Westminster council leader Colin Barrow said: 'We have frozen Council Tax for the past four years, putting money back into local households.'

He added that the council was getting more cash from the block now that it was residential rather than an office space, since business rates go largely towards central government. The Candy brothers, who developed One Hyde Park, said that some residents have already moved in, contrary to suggestions from Westminster Council that nobody was living there yet. Most buyers own their flats through offshore company structures, allowing them to avoid stamp duty.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX. 

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