The Daily Mail publishes a load of 'haunting' photos of a derelict mansion nr. Windsor in Buckinghamshire.
If the owners were expected to cough up £x0,000 LVT every year, then once they lost interest in living there, they would have sold it to somebody who wanted to live there and keep it in good nick.
The tax costs the new purchaser nothing; it comes off the purchase price, in the same way as you deduct likely repair costs from the purchase price of a building.