George Osborne told Parliament that “punitive tax rates do nothing to raise taxes”.

He pledged not to raise more money for the public purse by increasing taxes on property.

“We won’t introduce a new tax on property,” he said.

He added that such a tax would be costly to introduce due to the number of houses that would need to be assessed for valuations.

The Liberal Democrats had wanted to introduce a “mansion tax” on properties over £1m.