The Centre for a Better Britain, a thinktank linked to Reform UK and founded by former Reform chief operations officer Jonathan Brown, has published a 183-page report titled Boosting Britain that calls for abolishing the state pension and delivering about £75bn in tax cuts. The report proposes scrapping capital gains tax and inheritance tax, eliminating stamp duty on property and shares, removing the digital services tax and air passenger duty, and cutting corporation tax from 25% to 15% over eight years. CFABB says the changes would remove up to half of the existing tax code and must be matched by public spending cuts, but it does not set out precise savings to balance the public finances. The thinktank proposes replacing the state pension with “lifetime investment accounts,” including a £1,000 starter payment at birth and personal contributions up to 15% of earnings, while leaving a means-tested state pension as a safety net. CFABB also recommends weaker rules for banks, a sliding scale for bank taxes, breaking up the Treasury into a new Department for Economic Growth, and tying senior Bank of England pay to inflation targets. Jonathan Brown told reporters the state pension was “essentially a Ponzi scheme.” The report will be launched at a private event with City executives, has unclear funding, operates from Millbank Tower near Reform UK’s headquarters, and is likely to influence Reform UK’s platform weeks before prime minister Andy Burnham’s government unveils its first budget.
