Tory think-tank makes surprise move over to The Dark Side

Thanks to Thomas H for emailing me a link to ResPublica's Principles for the Budget 2012:

The Budget opens up a genuine opportunity to address these inequalities, stimulate economic growth and put dormant capital to use. The most effective way of doing this is through taxing wealth* not income. While avoiding the unwanted consequences of high income tax – such for instance as, disincentivising profit maximizing and driving investors off-shore – tax on ‘unearned’ wealth could prove a successful way of raising finance without hampering economic recovery.

A truly radical budget should therefore not only call for a revaluation of the property values unrevised since 1991 and introduce a tax paid in proportion to the value of property; it should also introduce a land value tax to generate extra income. These wealth taxes would have added benefits of stimulating land and property markets, as well as addressing jarring social inequalities.

In this context, it is worth being reminded that nearly 70% of the land in the UK is currently owned by 0.6% of population. These, and related topics, ResPublica intends to explore as part of its research into the Social Mobility agenda in projects such as InterGenerational Covenant.

* Let's deduct a mark for saying "wealth" instead of "community generated rental value of land", but apart from that... wrap me in tinfoil and call me Angela!