Drop the 50p tax rate and target property – the gutsy Welsh way to go | Simon Jenkins

Our council tax epitomises the political cowardice of successive governments. Will George Osborne be braver?

George Osborne has the right instinct on tax. Get some sanity into child and housing benefit, relieve taxes at the bottom and, at the top, tax wealth rather than income. If so, there is no time like the present. The chancellor should drop the unloved 50% band of income tax and go for property. Housing is the most inefficient, mal-distributed, under-taxed and therefore overpriced asset i...