In my September column, I wrote about having an estate agent attend my constituency surgery for the first time – to complain about the moribund state of the housing market. So I was obviously delighted when Kemi Badenoch made the abolition of stamp duty the centrepiece pledge of her first conference speech as Party leader.
Of course, she only did this after setting out where the savings would come from to pay for such a reduction. But I know that stamp duty – the main tax you pay when you buy a home – is a big issue for many constituents, whether younger families looking to get on the property ladder for the first time, or move subsequently, or older homeowners hoping to downsize. If ever there was a tax change that would both boost the wider economy and unlock the housing market, scrapping stamp duty fits the bill.
Tax is not going to go away as one of the key issues in British politics – locally or nationally. At a local level, I’d imagine readers are united in a sense that Council Tax has only one direction of travel: upwards. This is in part because the core costs of our local authorities, especially social care, are subject to ever growing demographic trends.
A particular danger here is the proposed merger of our local councils into unitary authorities, that combine the functions currently separated between district and county tiers. Ipswich has the highest council tax of any shire district in England. As such, my concern is unitary Government in Suffolk will result in a one-off upward adjustment of council tax levels towards Ipswich, making the year to year increases that much more painful. I certainly don’t see how we will be able to keep council tax at the lowest level (currently Mid Suffolk) unless the unitary approach makes significant savings, and we get to keep those savings locally.
But if there is one tax that I’ve written about more than any other since the election, it’s Labour’s proposed ‘Family Farm Tax’. I regard this as a particularly vindictive and harmful tax, that poses an existential threat to many local family farms, that have been passed down the generations. I’ve been clear and consistent – this is not a tax that ‘only a few farms will pay’, as Labour effectively implied when they first announced their plans.
Rather, whenever I’ve got local farmers together to talk about the tax, everyone present has been affected. To be frank, on this subject, I’ve been staggered at how little the Government seem to understand farming and the countryside. At times, it’s like they’ve revelled in not making any attempt to compromise.
But I’ve constantly told farmers in the constituency not to give up – the public sympathise with them. They know we must never take food security for granted. And there are indications that the Government might – finally – be starting to listen. Last Saturday the Times reported that Ministers are considering raising the threshold of the tax to £5m, supposedly protecting many more ‘small’ farmers. I treat such reports with caution, but it shows that even when facing a Government with a huge majority, constant campaigning can have an impact.
After setting out a huge package of savings at party conference, Kemi Badenoch was not only able to promise to scrap stamp duty, but also to slash business rates for the high street. This is another major part of our economy that has suffered of late – not least because of another tax, the huge increase in Employers’ National Insurance, which has forced up prices and led to fewer job vacancies in a sector that usually provides bountiful openings.
Some would say - but didn’t taxes rise when you were in Government? When we came to power in 2010, we faced a near bankrupt country and had to both put up taxes and cut spending. We had to raise taxes again after we borrowed half a trillion pounds for furlough and help with energy bills.
Such borrowing inevitably leads to higher taxes – I was always open about that. I also think the country knew that those pandemic measures would eventually have to be paid for. But now that we are out of the twin crises of the pandemic and energy price surge, it’s right that the public ask their politicians for spending restraint so that their taxes can one day be cut. After all, this would be one way to deliver the economic elixir that both ensures our prosperity and funds public services – stronger growth.
Published in the Suffolk Free Press.
