What a radical Conservative government could do

Last week I described Anthony Atkinson's proposals for reducing inequality. Atkinson - a professor of economics at Nuffield College, Oxford - proposes substantially higher income tax rates for everyone earning more than £65,000, a much higher minimum wage, guaranteed public employment, an expansion of universal benefits and much else. It is the agenda one would expect of a courageous Labour party, which of course places it a long way from the agenda that the actual Labour party is proposing.

It seems only fair, then, to offer the same service to the Conservatives: on the off chance that we ever see an economically radical Tory party, what policies might I suggest they embrace?

Step one is to replace the benefit system with a more libertarian form of redistribution. Scrap all the mainstream benefit payments - for example, child benefit, jobseeker's allowance, housing benefit, winter fuel allowance and even the state pension. Scrap the income tax allowance too. Give all long-term UK residents a taxable basic income of £8,000 a year and charge a flat 40 per cent income tax rate on every penny. The basic income can be phased in on a residency basis over 10 years, ensuring that recent immigrants pay a larger net contribution to the exchequer.

This policy targets poverty rather than inequality. It abolishes much of the bureaucracy that surrounds benefit eligibility, promotes individual responsibility and reduces the stigma of collecting money from the state. It gives everyone, rich and poor, a clear incentive to work. Compared to the current system, it redistributes to the working poor and to the highest earners - both groups of people who are likely to produce more taxable income in response. It is simple, discouraging tax avoidance. And, despite the flat headline rate, the average income tax contribution is progressive: negative for those on low incomes, 10-25 per cent for those on average incomes and approaching 40 per cent for the rich.

People with unusual needs - the severely disabled, for instance - would be helped by a multibillion-pound fund with considerable discretion to make direct cash payments or commission assistance from charities.

A second policy is to privatise the entire school system. Children would receive a £10,000 basic income in a tax-sheltered educational account controlled by parents but usable only for childcare, school or university fees. Compulsory schooling would end at the age of 14 and educational institutions would be competing to attract these pots of tax-free cash with engaging and practical training courses. Any unspent money would be taxed and handed over to the child at the age of 21.

Third, scrap the personal pension system. Both the logic for and the reputation of the existing system is in tatters. With the new flat tax and universal basic income it would also be superfluous. People can save for their retirement in more flexible Isa-style savings accounts and could be nudged into doing so by a default payroll deduction.

A fourth policy must involve the housing market. The current cluster of housing policies ("cluster" is a polite abbreviation for a more appropriate term) ensures slow growth, resentment of immigrants, a crippling housing-benefit bill, inequality growing through luck rather than hard work and innovation, and the direction of potentially productive savings into accumulating unproductive housing wealth. This is a multifunctional policy indeed.

Given that housing benefit is to be abolished by this radical government, there is an urgent need to build large numbers of houses. This would boost the economy and reduce the price of new homes. One possibility, proposed by the Centre for Policy Studies, is the establishment of "pink zones" with lighter planning regulation (the colour represents a dilution of red tape). In these zones, substantial increases in housing could be achieved by a coalition of local authorities, community groups and developers.

However the trick is pulled off, the government must create the conditions for a housing boom - 400,000 new homes a year for five years would do to begin with. It's ambitious, but necessary after decades of insufficient building.

A final idea: look to broaden the tax base and lower tax rates. Abolishing all VAT exemptions would be a good start, and would provide substantial revenue. A carbon tax would also be well worth introducing, as would more proportionate taxation of housing wealth. The proceeds of these taxes would be needed at first to pay for the universal basic income but the aim would be to reduce universal income tax rate too. A future leftwing government could redistribute within the same framework by increasing the basic income.

That should do the trick for the first term but a Conservative government should also commit to staying in the European Union, which stands in favour of trade, business and hard money; and to leaving the National Health Service alone for a few years just to see how it performs when not being incessantly prodded by politicians.

There you have it: a smaller, less bureaucratic state, innovation in education, redistribution to the poorest, a lower but more transparent income tax to attract the rich, an economic boom on the back of much-needed home-building and affordable housing for all.

Conservative Central Office can thank me later.

Tim Harford is the author of "The Undercover Economist Strikes Back". Twitter: @TimHarford

Illustrations by Harry Haysom

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