Martin Wolf accurately identifies the straitjacket of options politicians have created for themselves when relying on tax structures evolved from 1925 (“What should Reeves and Starmer say and do next?”, Opinion, March 18).
Timeworn tax structures, based on employment and consumption, offer little in an economy operating with low resource efficiency and significant carbon emissions. Expanding measures based on producer responsibility — beyond the narrow confines of packaging — are long overdue in our “waste” economy. The introduction of equal per capita tradeable personal carbon credits for consumption of energy, travel and carbon intensive goods could — if set at a sufficiently high level — address the calls for effective tax transfers from the carbon squanderers to the carbon poor. It could also act as a replacement for benefit payments, drive material efficiency, accelerate improvements in domestic housing, revolutionise supply chain systems design and encourage a shift to public transport.
The tinkerers in the Treasury have failed to see the writing on the wall for decades. Will a Reeves-run Treasury respond any differently I wonder?
Peter Jones
North Kilworth, Leicestershire, UK
