How do we go about securing broader public support for further progressive tax measures as part of our efforts to tackle inequality?
One of the difficulties we face is that many of the most important social investment programmes that have been introduced by the government, such as Sure Start, free nursery places, or the Child Trust Fund, don’t really impact on the lives of a large proportion of the population – middle-aged home owners for example. However,
these groups of people always vote and always feature prominently in the government’s electoral calculations. If they don’t feel that they are seeing ‘value for money’ for the taxes that they are already paying, it is difficult to build up a case for further progressive taxation.
Therefore we need to put more investment in the fabric and maintenance
of our towns and cities and the physical appearance of key public
sector facilities.
Many EU countries on the continent have a better record on this front
than the UK and perhaps this has helped to prepare the ground for more
progressive taxation in these countries.
One example of this is street-cleaning: Frankfurt and Brussels spend
around 100 million euros each on this a year; Manchester spends £8
million.
What we can be sure of, however, is that brighter, cleaner, better
maintained urban centres help to improve people’s sense of health,
well-being and confidence, as well as their sense of civic pride and
community togetherness. It also has a direct and tangible impact on
everyone in the community from the poorest to the wealthiest.
Front line NHS facilities are another area where we could be doing
more. Unlike schools and nurseries everyone makes use of local GP
surgery from time to time: nine out of ten NHS visits are made to GP
surgeries. In the last 12 years many GP surgeries and health centres
have been rebuilt or refurbished through government initiatives such as
the LIFT programme, but there are many others that haven’t seen very
much investment. Spending more on these facilities not only helps to
improve patients’ sense of well-being but it also enables them to see a
direct return on the extra money going into the NHS.
Therefore we should have an earmarked grant to local authorities for
use on maintaining or improving the urban landscape. In a medium sized
town such as Dartford for instance enough money to employ one or two
extra people to clean, maintain and repair town centre facilities could
make a major difference to the town and the people who use it.
Similarly, a one off facilities improvement to front-line NHS
facilities of as little as £10,000 could make a significant difference
to the patient experience and their overall impression of the NHS.
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