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Topic for March 2021 - Economic Recovery
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Our topic for March with suggested agenda is:
Economic Recovery – The Budget, Taxation and Incentives
Did the budget set us on the path to recovery? Do we know what was in it? Was it fully reported?
What are the principles we should be following? What objectives should we be setting for ourselves?
What shouldn’t we be spending money on?
Should we be more ambitious about driving growth?
How are we placed for Domestic Trade Recovery and International Trade recovery?
Are there lessons from the pandemic that we need to take account of e.g. self-sufficiency levels?
Will Brexit and Covid hinder our recovery or act as a shot in the arm?
Is our glass half-empty or half-full?
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Our discussion output is now available at: Economic Recovery - Budget Taxation, Incentives
On this occasion we endorsed a lot of existing proposals which came from previous outputs, rather than identifying new ones. Principally these come from Bouncing Back – The Economy, Incentives and Taxation and the two documents on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence - Managing the Future and Artificial Intelligence Society - Proposals.
We did however identify a number of principles which we see as appropriate for the economic recovery we all want to see.
Principles to be followed
In reviewing the budget initiatives, we were broadly supportive of all aspects related to supporting the economy and to economic recovery. We recognise it is too early to judge any actual effects of these measures. Given our situation as a country, it is very difficult to be critical of any increased spending to aid recovery.
Rather than many specific ideas we identified the following principles as ones we would wish to see followed when choosing initiatives:
Growth
- Investment-led growth and support for innovation
- Support for jobs and creation of new jobs
- Improving UK productivity and ensuring we all share in the growth of the future economy
Taxation
- Tax paid by companies (especially online companies) to be commensurate with the business they do in the UK, in order to be fair and so that we don’t leak tax income to HMRC. Also addressing all tax evasion and avoidance
- ‘No Merit’ taxation – taking the opportunity to tax those things that are bad for our health g. high sugar drinks, or that have negative impacts for society
Self-sufficiency
- Increased self-sufficiency in the UK, especially related to strategic products and services. At the same time increasing global trade and making ourselves easier to do business with
Spending and Accountabiity
- When spending so much money on top of existing plans for ‘Levelling-Up’ and Infrastructure Projects we need to improve how efficiently and effectively money is spent and accountability for the way it is spent
This post was edited by Tony Clack at March 24, 2021 12:12 PM GMT