A Wealth Tax Abandoned: The role of the UK Treasury 1974-6

Howard Glennerster

CASE Papers from Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE

Abstract: The distribution of wealth is widening in many countries and with it the importance of inherited wealth. In 1974 a Labour Government came to power in the United Kingdom committed to introducing an annual wealth tax. It left office without doing so. Using the official archives of the time and those of a key advisor this paper traces both the origins of the policy and its fate in Whitehall. It explores two related questions. What does this experience tell us about the role of the civil service in the policy process in the UK and what lessons might be learned by those wishing to tackle the issue of widening wealth disparities today?

Keywords: wealth tax; policy process; UK Treasury (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pub
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