The Adam Smith Institute Responds to Kemi Badenoch’s leader’s speech

Commenting on Kemi Badenoch’s leader’s speech, Maxwell Marlow, Director of Public Affairs at the Adam Smith Institute, said:

“After a year of holding our breath for policy announcements, Kemi Badenoch’s closing speech for the Conservative Party Conference should be welcomed as a radical plan to rebuild the foundations of our economy.

In particular, the pledge to abolish stamp duty, which is Britain’s most economically and socially harmful tax, will be universally welcomed by economists and the public.

Likewise, the pledge to restrict Motability to only those who need it echoes ASI research that shows taxpayer costs can be saved.

The battle is not yet won for the Conservatives, but these radical plans should set the tone for a Party which values and treasures economic, social, and moral liberty.”

Commenting on Kemi Badenoch's proposal to abolish the stamp duty land tax, Mitchell Palmer, Economist at the Adam Smith Institute, said:

“Almost every economist agrees that stamp duty land tax is one of the most destructive taxes on the books. It traps older people in homes that are too big or expensive for them, and younger people out of the homes they need to start a family. It also makes it more difficult for British people to pursue new opportunities, limiting their ability to increase their incomes and contribute to national productivity.

Our estimates, based on empirical work from the UK and Australia, suggest that abolition for primary residences could enable 349,000 extra home sales each year. The extra economic activity those sales would create would go a long way to covering the forgone revenue.”

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

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