How to reverse austerity? Scrap some of the tax-relief

Even the HMRC doesn’t know if any of the 341 tax breaks promote economic growth – many merely line the pockets of company owners and the super-rich

• Caution, not grand plans, is needed if Labour is to build wealth in Britain

When Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves consider the funding gap between what they want a Labour government to achieve and the money available, there are billions of pounds in unjustified tax giveaways that could be cancelled to help reverse austerity.

Successive governments have put in place tax breaks to boost economic growth that in the worst examples have proved to be a fraudsters’ charter and, even in less scandalous circumstances, are undermined by a lack of evidence about whether they achieve their aims.