Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax isn’t far off Labour’s housing policy. Not that you’ll ever hear Starmer say it | Anna Minton

<p>The UK has its own progressive policies such as the second home and ‘mansion’ taxes. So why isn’t the PM shouting it from the rooftops?</p><p>In April, to mark the day on which Americans are expected to file their taxes, the New York mayor,<strong> </strong>Zohran Mamdani,<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKZnVB4F9k">filmed himself on Billionaires’ Row</a>, an enclave of super-tall apartment buildings just south of Central Park. When he took office, he said, he would tax the rich, and now, outside the hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s $238m penthouse, he was ready to make good on his pledge. “Today, we’re taxing the rich,” he said with a flamboyant smile, zooming his face into the camera. It was the opening to a short film unashamedly titled Happy Tax Day, New York.</p><p>He went into battle armed with stats. According to Mark Levine, NYC’s comptroller (a senior financial executive), the pied-à-terre tax on second homes will raise <a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-pied-a-terre-tax-and-its-potential-revenues/">about $500m</a> annually fromabout 11,200 properties.</p><p>Anna Minton is reader in architecture at the University of East London. Her new book, Superprime: The Sterilisation of the City, will be published by Penguin next year</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/16/zohran-mamdani-pied-a-terre-tax-new-york-keir-starmer">Continue reading...</a>