Dear Rachel,
I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but I’ve got some proposals think you might be interested in, particularly as everyone is agog for the next chapter of the Coronation of Andy story and might not notice some fiscal changes that would not affect them badly anyway. They won’t yield vast sums of money, but enough to save a service here and there and avoid some brutal headlines.
(Before I outline my suggestions, may I say that I’m appalled at the way HM Treasury carries on – anyone would think it was their own money – and you have my deepest sympathies for having to do battle with them every day. As far as I’m concerned, they’re no different from Smaug, sitting atop his hoard of gold in The Lord of the Rings. They give out that they’ve got no money, but along comes a war or a historical scandal, and it turns out they’ve got a billion or two down the back of the sofa. I bet the basement of their elegant building is awash with cash.)
Anyway, my first suggestion is a transaction tax, and you’ll be relieved to hear it’s not just some random idea from a bonkers member of the electorate, but one put forward by Gordon Brown – you know, one of your predecessors, the one with the ‘endogenous growth theory’. Brown’s transaction tax proposal was a levy on bank dealings, aimed at curbing wild speculation, but mine is different, in that it would be levied on online purchases. According to data analysts Statista, we in the UK place 4.2bn orders online per year. A modest 50p tax on each one would therefore yield Smaug, sorry, HMT, £2.1bn. Simples. Think what we could do with that. (Put some towards struggling high street retailers, perhaps?
Next up, road tolls. It always amazes me that the French, who are so bolshie and ever ready to get their tractors in a row and protest, seem to acquiesce in this form of taxation so readily. It’s slightly different in that stretches of motorway are managed by a range of private providers, and while you mostly only get two lanes, you do get lots of lovely rest areas with a pine tree and a picnic table, if the signs are to be believed, and maybe even a little playground for frazzled drivers to let off steam in.
Revenue from road tolls is around £10.2 bn a year, most of which goes to the companies that operate them. Our motorway network is about a third of the size, but even so we could be looking at another £3.5bn in the coffers. We have been softened up to the concept of road pricing by the M6 road toll, Dartcharge, the Mersey Tunnel and the Congestion Charge, so now it the time to take the plunge and adopt a flexible-pay-as-you-go approach. The beauty of this tax is that with a little bit of planning, you can avoid it altogether and pootle along the byways, taking in the scenery.
And finally, a proposal so radical that it STRIKES AT THE HEART OF A CHERISHED INSTITUTION! I know that the NHS is meant to be ‘free at the point of delivery’, but its very success has moved the goalposts. Nye Bevan could not have imagined the scope of medical advances to treat the seriously ill, nor the increases in longevity over the past fifty years, so it’s not surprising the pool of patients has grown beyond the capacity of current budgets to support it. We already pay for glasses, teeth, prescriptions – would it be such an imposition for those who can afford it to pay £10 for a GP visit and £20 for a hospital; admission? Even if you assume that half the population would be exempt because of age, chronic illness, low income, etc. that could yield around £3bn. Just saying…
And now to France, to give M. Macron and his finance minister Roland Lescure some advice on how to put an end to their money worries. Don’t they realise that a one-euro on each bottle of their ridiculously cheap wine could net them another €3 bn ayear?
(NB: I am available for summits, conferences and think tanks, and I’m happy to come to Davos any time… )