1.5million Brits have two homes

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With our housing crisis at its worst ever the British census released figures on those repsondents claiming to have two homes. The figure of 1.5million was given in this report:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20026773

If Nick Clegg wants a mansion tax, David Cameron wants the housing benefits bill brought down, and Ed Milliband wants affordable housing, then it is time we taxed heavily those who own more than one home. This would possibly free up some homes for those who need it, and maybe bring our over inflated housing market down to more realistic levels. This would help in achieving what our 3 political leaders want.

Is that idea reasonable, or am I going to be accused of being a socialist, anti capitalist, anti freedom, anti whatever?

Are there property taxes in the U.K.?
In America, a home owner has to pay taxes every year on his/her house and land. The higher the value of the home, the more tax one owes. Second homes are also taxed, and generally at a much higher level than the primary residence.

Which is often why a husband will claim one residence as primary, and the wife the other.

I don't know about property taxes but we have council tax which people pay for living in a property (rent or owner). If you have a second home or if your usual home is vacant then the tax goes down by 50%.

People own homes and flats and leave one empty most of the year, they can get away with not paying a lot of tax.

See, there's the difference. The U.K. taxes second homes less, and the U.S. taxes them more.
Lot of money to be made by forcing the fortunate to fork over for the luxury of having multiple residences. Some of them might even decide it's not worth it and sell to people with no house, alleviating the housing crisis a bit. Though really, with so many people wanting work and so many people wanting houses, why isn't anyone building them? In America we've got empty houses everywhere since the recession started.

We've got empty houses in the UK, but they're in areas no-one wants to live in. Everyone wants to live in the South East of England and London in particular, which is why the property prices are eye-watering there. The housing crisis we have in the UK is down to a bunch of factors:
1. the lack of actual space in and near London, where jobs are concentrated and where immigrants flock to
2. our population is increasing faster than we can deal with
3. they sold off most of the social housing in the 80s, with the introduction of the right to buy scheme. This wouldn't be a problem apart from the fact that once all the social housing had been sold, they didn't build any more to replace it. Now rental properties that are former social housing can be very expensive.
4. Homeowners and landlords don't want more houses to be built because that will decrease demand and therefore decrease the value of their property. They're already whining about a 'house price slump'. Politicians are wary of pissing these people off too much, to protect their voter base.
5. People owning second homes in places like Wales and Cornwall, pricing locals out.

the problem is that bankers think they have the right to foreclose on properties forever.

If there is no space in Britain and they can't build affordable new houses for whatever reason then perhaps it's time to leave Britain. In America, you can't expect to own property in Manhattan for any reasonable price. The amount of people that want to live there just far exceeds the space available. The world is a huge place, there is plenty of space and opportunity out there.

just widen the green belt around London just a small tiny bit, and really tackle down foreign investors whose betting on real estate is driving up prices un-necessarily. Why don't the less well off leave for other nearby towns, London is the economic engine, but is it a jobs producer? Chicago and Seattle are the economic powerhouses in their respective metros but most of the economic growth is generated in its metropolitan beyond the urban core, specifically in nearby suburbs, is that the case in London?

London is a very big city. Parts of it are overcrowded and crime ridden. Parts of it are relatively sparsely populated (in London terms) and upmarket. Those parts are prohibitively expensive, of course.

The Home Counties are the place to be, we have the jobs and the countryside

You know how you fix a lack of homes? Tell government to stop preventing people from building them!

I'd hate to cross a line here but Jesus f*****g Christ, half of hte posts by "anti-rich" people here seem to be about the rich being focused purely on making money and high profits, while the other half seems to be about the rich having no desire to make money what so ever.