Britain's top economists are calling for a radical overhaul of the country's tax system, urging the next prime minister to scrap stamp duty and council tax in favor of a single annual property value tax.
A group of leading economists, including a former Goldman Sachs chief economist, have written an open letter to the man expected to become the next prime minister, warning that structural reform can no longer be delayed.
The group endorses a five-year programme that models how fiscal, welfare, and infrastructure policies can unlock the gridlock that plagues the country.
The next prime minister, expected to take office on July 20, will inherit an economy weighed down by high debt and stubbornly low growth.
The economists are pushing for a simpler tax system that would fund universal services and transform the welfare state by delivering support in kind rather than in cash.
The proposed system would abolish stamp duty and council tax in favor of a 1 per cent annual property value tax, ending what is described as "the absurdity of a modest terrace paying proportionally more than a high-value mansion."
A new property levy is unlikely to pass without a fight, however, and some have already branded it a "garden tax" and a "tax straight out of the Corbyn playbook."
The debate over what a Burnham-linked tax could mean for UK business and investors is still fresh, and the economists are warning that the question is no longer whether Britain can afford reform, but whether it can afford another decade without it.
The letter's signatories include prominent economists and experts from top universities, who are calling for a new approach to tackle the country's structural and systemic problems.
Their verdict on Westminster's recent record is blunt: "Seven prime ministers in ten years have inherited the same challenge and failed to solve it for the same reasons: the problems are structural and systemic."
