There's a great article under the above title by Peter Lampl in the Observer this morning.
As he says:
What was painfully apparent from talking to the head and visiting secondary schools was that few bright children from areas such as Wakefield now have a chance of making it to top universities. From the outskirts of Liverpool in the north to the coastal communities of Kent in the south, large swaths of the country have become educational wastelands — where children, despite their talents, face the bleakest of life prospects.
In London, meanwhile, where I now live, a very different phenomenon has transformed the capital's most sought-after postcodes. The latest figures suggest that the rich from outside the UK now purchase the vast majority of super-prime property in London. Belgravia, Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill, Chelsea and even exclusive enclaves in the home counties are becoming non-British zones.
It is not London's weather that attracts the wealthy from overseas; for many, it is its non-domicile tax status. Among major countries, only in the UK do we allow wealthy foreigners to be permanent residents and not declare their worldwide income and pay tax on it. Instead, they make a one-off payment of £30,000 a year and pay tax on UK source income, which many do not have. At the same time, the UK is renowned for having the best private education money can buy.
This is a description of the failure of social policy written large in tax policy; and vice versa.
When we have policy intended to favour the rich we get a divided society that hamrs us all.
Which is precisely why we need to get rid of the domicile rule and introduce strongly progressive taxation, especially on wealth.
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Great stuff – we have to keep banging this message home. Tax issues for the average voter are opaque. They have little idea how advantaged the wealthy in the UK really are or the amount of tax avoidance that exists. “Globalisation- friendly” New Labour ( and perhaps in some ways understandable given its losing 4 elections prior to 1997) got far too free and easy with its dealings with big business and the very wealth. Those days are over. Milliband will find favour now as Londoners know too clearly how foreign wealth is distorting so much.
Other countries are harder so we have to forget being overly sensitive to non-doms; they are here to make money. Labour has to respond or else there could be others on the far right who articulate another message.
“Among major countries, only in the UK do we allow wealthy foreigners to be permanent residents and not declare their worldwide income and pay tax on it.”
Factually, I think that is incorrect. Spain operates a similar system which seems to work quite well for footballers.
Oh sorry, “major countries”. Point taken. As you were.