Latest news with #CraigDalzell
The National
3 days ago
- Business
- The National
Here's how a wealth tax on Scotland's luxury properties could work
Writing in The National, Craig Dalzell said that the Scottish Government's refusal to reform Council Tax for a decade is 'completely unacceptable' when there is a simple solution. He argued that the current system is 'outdated and badly broken', and that as well as reforming how local authorities are funded, it would place most of the tax burden on those with more expensive homes. Currently, Council Tax bands are based on property values from April 1991, but house prices in some areas have since surged. The Scottish Government recently said that there is no 'political consensus' to undertake a revaluation of those bands. READ MORE: James McMurdock MP worked for bank while 'claiming Covid loans' Dalzell argues that instead of the current system, local authorities should tax properties on a percentage of the market value. The Property Tax would generate millions from estates and plush mansions across Scotland, as well as those who own more than one property. And, extending this Property Tax to include estates and land could work as an additional wealth tax. A rate of 0.63 per cent, when Common Weal produced a paper on the issue, would "have been revenue neutral compared to Council Tax", Dalzell said. This would mean a tax cut for eight out of 10 households in Scotland, Dalzell claimed, 'as the burden of paying the tax would be placed more fairly on those who lived in the most expensive houses'. 'We calculated that the 'break even' point then would have been a house worth something like £400,000. This is based on a flat rate of tax, too,' Dalzell writes. 'We would argue that councils should have the power to add progressive rates on extremely valuable properties, such as £1 million-plus mansions or, as is the case with the current Council Tax, additional multipliers for multiple home ownership. 'This would immediately act as a wealth tax both on the most expensive properties but also on multiple property ownership.' Council Tax is currently paid by those who occupy the property, many of whom are tenants. Dalzell argues that property owners should pay up instead and tenants would only pay a basic rate. 'Landlords would have to pay any multiple ownership surcharges themselves,' he added. READ MORE: Inside the Scottish Greens leadership contest Extending this Property Tax to include land around large properties could bring in an additional £450m a year, Dalzell says. 'This could be adjusted down to account for subsidies for small farms, or up to better tax the 422 people who own half of Scotland,' he said. 'One of the major advantages of both of these taxes – one that negates objections from both the UK and Scottish Government whenever taxes on the wealth have been suggested – is that they completely bypass the idea that the rich will simply leave the country. 'Recent studies have shown that the idea of 'millionaire flight' basically isn't a thing.'
The National
6 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Four ways Mairi McAllan can fix Scotland's housing crisis
Good evening! This week's edition of the In Common newsletter comes from Dr Craig Dalzell, head of policy and research at Common Weal. Màiri McAllan has returned to the Scottish Government after a well-deserved period of patient parental leave, though has left her former post as Cabinet Secretary for Energy and has been tasked with fixing Scotland's housing crisis. As a writer of policies on both topics I don't exactly envy the position but I can at least lay out some of the options I and my colleagues in Common Weal have published over the years on the topic. Housing is about more than homes – as anyone can attest if they have ever objected to a planning application for a new suburban sprawl on the basis that it would add extra pressure to services such as GPs, schools and other public services without adding to provision – but about building a sense of place, of community and about meeting a fundamental human need for shelter. The task is far larger than I can do justice in these few lines of text but I shall offer Màiri (below) four ideas to help fix housing in Scotland. Actual land reform You cannot build a home without having the land to build on it. This is a particularly acute problem in rural Scotland where despite having the space to build we often cannot access the land due to it being held by mega-estates and is simply not for sale or when it is, the price to buy is being speculated beyond control. We need a land tax and other mechanisms like Mercedes Villalba's proposal to cap maximum land ownership. One of the most powerful ideas though would be to allow councils to buy land at 'existing use value'. That is the value of land as it currently is, not an inflated value based on its 'potential' for housing or other uses. Build 'enough' social housing The central reason why Britain's housing 'market' is broken is because we run housing as a market. Thatcher broke the previous system by selling off social housing and making it impossible for councils to replace them. Social housing should never be the last option before homelessness but the first choice for housing for many. My paper Good Houses for All shows how the borrowing powers of councils and the Scottish National Investment Bank could build essentially unlimited homes for social rent (councils aren't limited in borrowing powers like Holyrood is, so long as the rents are sufficient to pay back the loan). They could be built to the highest possible energy standards to outbid the private sector in both price and quality. And they shouldn't be built to an arbitrary target of 'more houses than the previous government' but based on actual need. Councils should have a waiting list of people who want one of these homes and be resourced to deliver them by a certain date. If we do this, the private sector will be forced to cut rents and increase quality ... or their landlords will decide that they can no longer exploit people for a profit and will have to sell. (Image: Supplied) Fill vacant housing 'But what happens to the houses if the landlords sell?' Scotland already has more vacant homes than we have homeless households. Many of those homes are not being sold, but are still being clung on to as a speculative investment because prices are rising higher than costs. We also have even more vacant housing than appears in those statistics because many high street shops in Scotland have housing units above them that are vacant but are classified as 'commercial use' rather than residential. Look above the ground floor in many places in the centre of Glasgow and you'll start to see them. Policies like increasing council tax multipliers on empty homes and Màiri's announcement this week of extra vacant housing officers will go a long way towards fixing this. Councils should also be resourced to allow them to use their compulsory purchase powers more aggressively – particularly to support them to purchase vacant homes not at 'market rate' but at a fair rate that will include consideration of the costs to repair and retrofit the housing up to the standards expected of newbuilds – this will often be far cheaper than building new and therefore will contribute to the solution to the crisis in a much more resource efficient way. READ MORE: 'Trading people like cargo' UK-France one in, one out deal sparks fury Increase rental building standards For the housing that remains in private rental hands, we need to continue the work already being done around tenants' rights, rent controls and quality standards. As hinted above, many private rented houses in Scotland fall far short of energy efficiency and other environmental standards and urgently need retrofitted. France is rolling out a scheme whereby it will be illegal to rent properties that fall below a certain EPC rating and the minimum rating will keep rising every few years. Scotland should do the same. Before those retrofits happen, many of these properties also need to be repaired first (there's little point in installing solar panels on a leaking roof). The aggressive recapture of housing for social rent mentioned above could also be done with private rented homes that still have sitting tenants if the landlord wishes to sell or is deemed no longer adequately responsible in their management of housing, converting them to social rents and offering a rent-controlled lifetime tenancy to the tenant along with an improving their homes. Conclusion The housing emergency in Scotland is perhaps second only to the climate emergency that Màiri was familiar with in her previous brief. The two are, in fact, interrelated and can't be solved separately. What won't solve it is shovelling more money into the paws of private developers under the guise of 'affordable housing' that is barely either. It's not going to solved by a single tweak anywhere or even if we only do everything on this list but every step we take will lead to more people living more affordably and more securely in a country that can more than afford to provide that, but for too long hasn't by design.
The National
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Universal Basic Income in Scotland can draw from our neighbours
Good evening! This week's edition of the In Common newsletter comes from Dr Craig Dalzell, head of policy and research at Common Weal. BACK in the early days of Common Weal, while we were still finding our feet and building our reputation, we had an informal rule when it came to policy-making. We had to be able to show the policy working somewhere else. This was because we felt that Scotland simply wasn't ready for some of the radical ideas that we wanted to implement so being able to show it already working was a good way of building confidence in a nation too often told 'we cannae dae it' (by which our opponents often mean 'we shouldnae dae it' which is a different thing entirely). We've since dispensed with that rule and we sometimes broke it even then (one of Common Weal's very first policy papers, 'In Place Of Anxiety', was an advocacy for Universal Basic Income (UBI) long before it became one of the 'cool' policies) but this isn't to say that we can't learn lessons from elsewhere. Just this week, I was asked by a researcher which of our neighbour nations I'd like Scotland to copy if I could. My answer was that we shouldn't copy any one but that I take a lot of inspiration from Germany on local democracy, from Denmark on energy strategy and from Norway for public ownership. Somewhere else we could do with taking inspiration from our neighbours is on social security. The scenes this week from the UK's attempts to hammer the poor and disabled and only backing down after shambolic chaos in the Parliament should be a lesson not just in humanity but in policy-making as well. Never fight a battle you haven't won in advance. Never assume a large on-paper majority means certain absolute power. With many of our neighbours basing their politics on proportional representation and coalition politics, this kind of legislation would have undergone a lot of negotiation and compromise long before arriving at the voting chamber. The way that many of our neighbours deal with the issue of social security is markedly different from the UK in several ways. The first is that the systems are a lot more generous in general. Norway, Denmark and Sweden rank in the top three OECD nations for spending on disability protections at above 3% of GDP while the UK is well below the OECD average at less than 2%. Many more social securities like unemployment protections follow a different model from the UK when they are calculated. In particular, instead of the flat rate paid under the UK's Universal Credit, many countries follow a model where the protection you receive is based on a percentage of your previous income. There are consequences to each of these models. A flat rate tends to be more redistributive if it is generous enough (which Universal Credit isn't) whereas a proportional rate tends to be less disruptive to an individual who is already going through the shock of losing their job while still having bills to pay. We've seen these impacts in the UK too. During the pandemic, the Covid furlough scheme was paid at a proportional rate to people who were employed but was often paid at a flat Universal Credit rate to self-employed people. This exposed a lot of people who were previously on the side of denigrating poor and vulnerable people as lazy slackers to just how meagre and cruel the UK 'benefits' system is. We had an opportunity then to get some serious change off the back of that and maybe we still see echoes of it in this week's chaos but largely the Powers That Be wanted to make us forget that moment of reflection as quickly as possible. On the other side and as tempting as it might be to copy a European-style unemployment insurance based on previous income, and as beneficial that would be to people in well-paid but otherwise insecure jobs, we have to remember that many people are not in well-paid jobs and that wage suppression has been rife in the UK for decades. Receiving 60% of your previous income when you were being paid poverty wages won't protect you from poverty in unemployment. So maybe rather than Scotland – particularly an independent Scotland – copying existing social security policies from our neighbours, we need to look to them for inspiration in another way and look back at that paper I mentioned at the start of this column. (Image: PA) Last year, the EU think tank the Coppieters Foundation published a paper called 'A European Universal Basic Income' which found that a UBI sufficient to eradicate poverty across the entire union could be entirely paid for by relatively modest changes to income tax and the savings found from the reduction of poverty itself. Its model called for a UBI of €6857 per year for adults and half that for children under 14. This is the equivalent of £113 per week for adults and £57 per week for children. The paper claimed that the increase in income taxes to pay for this level of UBI would themselves be relatively modest and the 'breakeven' point for people who'd pay more income tax than they'd receive in UBI would be at around the 80th percentile. In other words, eight out of 10 people would be directly better off with the UBI. And, to repeat, while this is still a relatively small sum per person if you have no other income, it would be enough to eradicate poverty across the entire EU and would be cheaper overall – after the health, crime and social inequality costs of poverty are factored in – than the current systems. When this paper came out I argued that this meant a UBI was now a moral imperative because it was cheaper than the cost of poverty, but there's clearly a financial imperative too. Whether we're discussing an independent Scotland seeking to create a better country for all of us or even just a cynical UK trying to save money in the face of a humiliating attempt to crush the poor, here is a solution we should all support. Eradicate poverty, save money, implement a Universal Basic Income.
The National
22-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Is Scotland's foreign direct investment success actually a good thing?
It comes after data published by accounting giant EY last week showed that Scotland had been the top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the UK outside of London for a decade. EY reported that Scotland was bucking international trends by seeing an increase in its share of FDI projects in the UK against a 'backdrop of a marked decline in project numbers' across Europe. In 2024, the country attracted 135 FDI projects, the second highest ever recorded after 2023's 142. That represented 15.8% of the UK projects targeted for FDI, up from 14.4% in 2023 and above its decade average of 11.5%. Deputy First Minister and Economy Secretary Kate Forbes (Image: Colin Mearns) Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who also serves as Economy Secretary, called the figures 'an incredible endorsement of Scotland's proposition as a destination for global investment'. However, Craig Dalzell, the head of policy and research at Common Weal, urged caution, saying that Scotland was a 'massive outlier' internationally for the wrong reasons. 'Essentially, every investment demands a return on investment. So if foreign companies are investing in Scotland, then the profits that result from those investments go overseas,' he said. 'That has a direct impact on the amount of wealth that leaves Scotland. 'The level of profit extraction in Scotland as a proportion of our size as a percentage of GDP is higher than the average of West African countries. It's higher than the collection of the poorest and most indebted nations on the planet. READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: Highlanders are rallying against Scotland's energy land grab 'It's like we have this wealthy country, but we're treating it as if we're a completely undeveloped company, utterly reliant on other people coming in to develop it for us. It's just bizarre.' Last year, Common Weal published a paper looking at FDI projects titled 'Profit extraction: How foreign ownership drains Scotland's wealth'. It compared Scotland's GDP (gross domestic product) and its GNI (gross national income) and found that, in 2021, £36.5 billion was extracted from Scotland – largely in the form of profits and dividends to foreign companies and shareholders – while £26.4bn flowed into Scotland – largely as foreign investment income: a net outwards flow of £10.1bn. The Scottish Government does not routinely publish GNI figures, and has not done so since the 2021 figures were published. Dalzell said this meant it was 'impossible to know' the true impact of FDI projects on Scotland. He went on: 'But our paper found that more than a quarter of a trillion pounds has left Scotland through foreign profit extraction since the start of devolution. 'If that had been domestic companies investing in Scotland, that wealth would have stayed in Scotland and recirculated around Scotland.' Norway and the UK's different approaches to oil and gas are worth examining, Craig Dalzell saidDalzell argued that Scotland was heading towards a repeat of the same mistakes of the past in allowing vast sums of wealth to be extracted from the country by private enterprise. 'If you look at the level of profit extraction as a proportion of the size of the wealth of a country, GDP per capita of a country, there's a very clear correlation: richer countries are more able to become profit importers rather than profit exporters,' he said. 'The rich countries tend to invest elsewhere and then they pull the profits in. Scotland is a massive outlier in this. 'One of the reasons that Denmark is a profit-importing country is because it has several public energy companies and they're investing overseas. The Danish state is investing in Scotland. Why not the other way around? 'Where Scotland lacks capital for investment, you can do it in a way that doesn't mean selling off your economy. Look at the way that Norway developed its oil fields, for instance. READ MORE: Assa Samake-Roman: We need to look at where our money vanishes to 'Britain sold off its oil fields and allowed the companies to come in and drill the oil and take the profits. Norway hired the companies to build the rigs but kept ownership of them. 'We're seeing the same thing happening with renewables. We're allowing companies to come in, put up the wind turbines, own them, and take the profits.' Responding to Dalzell's concerns, Deputy First Minister Forbes said the Government was 'focused on ensuring that foreign direct investment projects create jobs, bring benefits to towns and cities throughout Scotland and grow the economy'. 'Exciting projects this year including green aircraft engine developer ZeroAvia and ticketing hub Humanitix will bring thousands of new jobs to Scotland and enhance the country's reputation as a world-class location for foreign investment,' she added. READ MORE: Scottish economy 'to outstrip UK, France, and Germany in 2026', KPMG projects There have been proposals, such as from the SNP's Trade Union Group or the Alba Party, for the Scottish Government to take shares in energy projects north of the Border. However, these have not progressed at government level. Dalzell further called for more routine publishing of GNI statistics to give a clearer picture of Scotland's economy. In response to a Freedom of Information request in February, the Scottish Government said: 'One of the key data sources for [GNI] statistics is an extract from the FDI survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 'During 2024, the ONS delayed its processing of the FDI survey … and the Scottish Government has not received data for 2022 or subsequent years. 'We expect to receive data for 2022 and 2023 during 2025, and will review plans for our publication when this is received. A publication date will be pre-announced when known.'
The Herald Scotland
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
No evidence child payment deters work, admits Government
However, a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Common Weal think tank revealed the Government has carried out no research to support this. READ MORE: The group requested data on the number of households receiving the Scottish Child Payment where no adult is in work or retired, and what proportion of the total this represents. Social Security Scotland responded to say it did not hold the information, 'because employment status is not a requirement for Scottish Child Payment'. Separate official documents, published in July by the Scottish Government, stated the payment was 'not currently negatively affecting labour market outcomes at any scale in the economy'. The Herald led a series on the impact of child poverty in Scotland (Image: Damian Shields) Craig Dalzell, Head of Policy at Common Weal, criticised the First Minister's comments. He said: 'It is simply irresponsible for politicians to make statements and policy which have the potential for devastating effects on vulnerable children if they do not have the evidence to support those claims. 'Worse still, they should not make these statements if they have not even attempted to gather the information needed to know whether the statement is correct or not. 'The First Minister has basically decided not to increase support for children in poverty and then made up an excuse which he has absolutely no reason to believe is true. 'The stark reality is that most people in poverty are in work. Starving their children will not increase their pay.' John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said there was plenty of evidence showing that increasing the payment would reduce child poverty. 'There is no evidence that we are aware of that increasing the Scottish Child Payment would act as a disincentive to enter the labour market or reduce labour market participation in any significant way,' he said. 'On the other hand, there is a mountain of evidence that boosting the payment would reduce child poverty further, improve children's health and wellbeing, and act as an investment in Scotland's economic future. "If Scotland is serious about ending child poverty it is vital that politicians of all parties base their decisions on the evidence.' READ MORE: The Scottish Child Payment, which is available to families on means-tested benefits including Universal Credit, is currently set at £27.15 per child per week. As part of The Herald's Scotland's Forgotten Children series, we joined forces with 23 children's charities calling for the Scottish Government to raise the payment to £40 per week. Research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that this level of increase would lift an additional 20,000 children out of poverty. Modelling by the Fraser of Allander Institute separately found it could lead to a further 2.5 percentage point reduction in child poverty, putting the Scottish Government on track to meet its statutory targets. Ministers missed their legally binding interim target to reduce the number of children living in relative poverty — defined as below 50% of the UK median income — to 18% by 2023–24. The latest figure is 22%, down from 26% the previous year. Charities have welcomed the fall but warn that the Scottish Government is now at risk of missing its 2030 target of reducing relative child poverty to 10%. In last week's Programme for Government, the First Minister reiterated his commitment to eradicate child poverty. He said: "In the coming year, we will consult on, develop and publish a tackling child poverty delivery plan for 2026-31 - outlining the actions we will take with our partners for low-income families across Scotland to keep us on the journey to meet our poverty reduction targets for 2030." The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
