Skip to content

Torsten Bell's Treasury takeover makes radical tax increases more likely than ever

    Torsten Bell
    Torsten Bell Rentigt with a number of former resolution Foundation colleagues – Jordan Pettitt/Pa Wire

    Torsten Bell's Treasury Reunion with colleagues at the left -wing think tank he used to run, suggests that power taxes will be connected to Rachel Reeves's second budget.

    The appointment of Dan Tomlinson, a former Treasury civil servant who spent seven years at the Resolution Foundation, shows the growing power of civil servants seduced by burdensome success.

    Tomlinson has said earlier that it would be 'indefensible' to not consider higher wealth tax, while a report that he described co-author Van Bell in 2021 described the wealth that was taxed less than income as a 'long-term' problem with the British tax system.

    “The 2020S will ask major questions for our tax system, in particular with regard to how tax can best be used to speed up and support the net zero transition – from CO2 taxes to the balance of the tax authorities on gas versus electricity,” said it.

    “These questions consist of long -term problems with parts of our tax system, such as the relative tax on capital and labor.”

    Such views were repeated in another more recent report called “Under Druk”, where the name of Tomlinson also appeared, encouraging urgent politicians to focus wealth on income.

    The report, which Tomlinson Co-author was from economists James Smith and Krishhan Shah, said: “Higher tax on wealth and non-employment income is most likely part of the answer for governments that want to deal with tax pressure in the 2020s.”

    It continued with describing wealth as “underloaded”.

    The report said: “Continuing to increase taxes on income, but not other forms of income are indefensible.

    “This amid a long-term and rapidly deteriorating squeeze, while tax revenues of wealth-related taxes have remained largely stable as a part of GDP, even if the value of household wealth has grown from three times to almost eight times GDP, is an approach that has no way.”

    Tomlinson himself has also called for trade union forces, which suggests that he shares the ambitions of Angela Rayner to strengthen the rights of employees, despite a commotion of companies.

    Rachel Reeves
    The Chancellor is preparing for the autumn budget with new faces in her senior team – Treasury

    He said: “It is clear that a stronger role for trade unions or other payment institutions is needed for the Nitty-Gritty to set standards in hundreds of sectors and professions.”

    Tomlinson has also praised the leave schedule as “a great success”, in which the need is described to translate it into a “more effective welfare system in good times and bad”.

    Bell itself is in favor of radical solutions for the economic problems of Great Britain. Ed Miliband's former director of the Budget Supremo policy will be given additional responsibility for economic policy in the autumn budget.