The Adam Smith Institute's commentary on the 2014 Autumn Statement were featured in Conservative Home and International Business Time UK: From Conservative Home:
The Adam Smith Institute welcomed the roads, stamp duty and ISA announcements, but said that Osborne’s R & D proposal “riskscrowding out private sector solutions” and argued that the Chancellor should make raising the National Insurance threshold “one of his top priorities”. It concuded that his plans to reduce the deficit “still seem credible”. On business rates, it said -
“A cap on business rate rises is welcome but the rates system itself needs more fundamental reform. The longer rates take to be revalued, the more distortionary the system is, penalising firms located in areas that have done badly since the last valuation. The longer the gap between rates revaluations, the greater the penalty for businesses in poorer areas and the effective subsidy for businesses in richer ones. Ideally the government should move towards a system of constantly rolling rates revaluations. If Zoopla can judge land values accurately on a rolling basis, so can HM Treasury.”
From IBTimes UK:
In the immediate aftermath of Osborne's Autumn Statement announcement in the House of Commons, economists, lobby groups and taxpayers hailed the radical move as one of the Conservative-led coalition government's best yet.
"The old stamp duty slab system was one of the worst taxes Britain had and we welcome the chancellor's radicalism in abolishing it, rather than simply tinkering around the edges," said Ben Southwood, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute.
"According to the best economic research, raising £1 through stamp duty imposes £2 to £5 of cost on the economy.
"Though it will still, as a transactions tax, cost the economy heavily, the reform will reduce the economic cost substantially. This is a tax cut for the squeezed middle that will make a big difference to a lot of people's lives. Politically, it could be a game-changer."