Perhaps it’s the left’s puerile belief that all property is theft that has led to Rachel Reeves’s swingeing attack on private landlords. Her latest threat is to slap National Insurance on rental income in her autumn Budget. As a proud socialist, I’m sure Lego-lady is on board with anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s property-thieving assertion; in which case, why not go the whole hog and hand all that stolen booty back to the state? Or give it to Angie; I’m sure she’d be thrilled to add another 14 million properties to her already bulging portfolio.

As a small-time ‘landlord’ (a word dripping with feudal menace), it’s not just the wracking up of taxes that makes me despair. It’s the petty little bureaucracies and extortionate fees designed to make me feel guilty for deigning to

See Full Page