Dr Andy Summers, CenTax Director said:
“Today’s Budget was an opportunity to tackle tax reform head-on rather than yet more rate tinkering. Some of the Chancellor’s announcements are a small step in that direction. But they are less a ‘smorgasbord’, more a series of nibbles.
“This may feel like a ‘big Budget’ of tax reforms, but that’s only because successive governments have done so little in the way of serious reform that we’ve forgotten what it looks like.
”There is still no sense that the government has a vision for a good tax system, let alone a strategy for getting there. In this climate, the risk is that even moves in the right direction – like on Council Tax – still come across as ad hoc revenue-grabs rather than principled efforts to make the tax system fairer and more efficient.”
Professor Arun Advani, CenTax Director said:
“For a government that’s supposedly obsessed with growth, we seem no closer to the realisation that our broken tax system is part of the UK’s growth problem, and that major structural reforms – not just rate-changes or more bolt-ons – are needed to fix it. Overall, the tax changes announced today are unlikely to move the needle on growth much one way or the other.
“A strategy for pro-growth tax reforms is already out there and ready to be picked up. Recently, authors from CenTax and eight other think tanks from across the political spectrum declared agreement on the way ahead [1]. It’s regrettable that this Budget contains barely a hint of progress against any of the seven reform packages we proposed.
“Outside government, the need for serious tax reform is universally accepted and there is remarkable agreement over how to do it. We must turn our attention to the reasons why successive governments have failed to deliver, despite this consensus. It would be wise to start thinking about this now, because ten weeks out from the next Budget will be too late.”
ENDS
Contact: Meg Davies (Communications and Public Affairs Lead, CenTax), megan.l.davies@warwick.ac.uk
Notes to editor:
- ‘Tax Reforms for Growth’ was launched in November 2025 and is authored by Andy Summers, Arun Advani, Carsten Jung, Chris Belfield, Dan Neidle, Hannah Peaker, James Howat, James Lawson, Robert Colvile and Ryan Shorthouse: https://centax.org.uk/tax-reforms-for-growth/
