I’m just back from the press conference where the Redwood-Wolfson report was launched. The focus of journalists’ questions was on tax policy but the report contains many other important economy-boosting recommendations. Read about them here and read George Osborne’s full remarks at the launch.
Most interesting was that George Osborne made it clear (yet again) that the Conservative Party would not go into the next General Election campaign offering voters an overall reduction in the burden of taxation. There will be some tax relief measures but they will all be funded by other increases in taxation. He also repeated that he believed in a low tax economy and that over the course of a parliament the party hoped to reduce the level of taxation – sharing the proceeds of growth between higher public spending and tax relief.
PS I’ve just written for The Guardian’s Comment is free on why Redwood is fundamentally right and why George Osborne is politically right.