‘Radical’ report likely to influence party’s platform also proposes abolishing inheritance and capital gains taxes
A thinktank linked to Reform UK has called for the abolition of the state pension and £75bn worth of tax cuts in a “radical” report likely to influence the party’s platform for the next election.
The Centre for a Better Britain’s (CFABB) report – which also calls for weaker rules for UK banks and Trump-style investment accounts offering £1,000 to newborns – will be formally launched at a private event with City executives on Wednesday.
The 183-page report, entitled “Boosting Britain”, proposes abolishing taxes typically levied on wealthy Britons, including capital gains tax and inheritance tax, which it says disrupts family businesses and encourages people to move their wealth out of the UK.
The CFABB – founded and led by the former Reform chief operations officer Jonathan Brown – also calls for the elimination of stamp duty on property and shares, digital service tax and air passenger duty, and a reduction in “internationally uncompetitive” corporation tax from 25% to 15% over eight years.
That would effectively “remove up to 50% of the existing tax code” at a £75bn cost to the public finances.
The report said it amounted to a “a programme of radical reform to Britain’s financial system and tax code, designed ultimately to raise productivity and living standards through better-paid jobs, higher retirement incomes, higher business investment, more businesses starting and scaling, and less time and money spent on unproductive activity”.
The report stresses that any tax changes would have to be matched by cuts to public spending – to avoid a Liz Truss-style market decline – but stopped short of outlining how exactly to match all of those cuts with cost savings.
However, the CFABB says some ways to cut spending could involve closing the coveted public pension plan to new teachers and civil servants, and eradicating the state pension. The Department for Work and Pensions forecasts the state pension will cost the public purse £146.1bn in 2025 to 2026.
“The issue with the state pension is that it’s essentially a Ponzi scheme,” Brown told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday, suggesting workers were unfairly funding current retirees.
Instead, a “lifetime investment account” would take its place. The Trump-style investment accounts would come as a £1,000 starter pack to children at birth, with account holders later contributing up to 15% of earnings into their personal retirement pot. The state pension would only remain as a “means-tested safety net” for the worst-off.
The report has been released weeks before the prime minister Andy Burnham’s government is due to reveal its first budget.
The CFABB launched formally last year, after raising fresh funds under its previous guise, Resolute 1850 – a reference to the ship whose timbers were used in the White House’s Oval Office.
Its report is likely to prompt debate, having also called for a sliding scale for bank taxes, breaking up the Treasury – moving some responsibilities to a new “department for economic growth” – and making sure senior executives at the Bank of England have their pay linked to hitting inflation targets.
That would include positions such as the governor of the Bank, currently Andrew Bailey, the thinktank authors confirmed.
The CFABB’s funding is unclear. It has notable ties with Reform UK, with its operations based in Millbank Tower near Reform’s headquarters, but authors said that their work had yet to be reviewed by the party.
The CFABB has five staff, and previously counted James Orr – Reform UK’s former head of policy – as the chair of its advisory board.
Orr was suspended from Reform UK earlier this month after being filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to help orchestrate a plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. Orr denies wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for the CFABB said Orr stepped down from the thinktank role when he took a job at Reform in February, and was not replaced.