Abstract
The tax and investment reforms justified through the Northern Powerhouse discourse have set in place the foundations of a new tax settlement in England. Yet, this chapter argues that these reforms will concentrate capital available for reinvestment in those local economies which are already affluent and growing, and in all likelihood further disadvantage Northern regions. The recomposition of the tax system inaugurates a ‘race to the bottom’ between polities who will be encouraged to offer increasingly ‘business friendly’ tax environments. This is being discursively rationalised as part of a strategy to address the UK’s uneven development, but instead is likely to exacerbate regional inequalities by impeding the flow of much-needed capital for investment to the North.
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Bailey, D. (2018). The Recomposition of the Tax System: Exacerbating Uneven Development Through the Northern Powerhouse Agenda. In: Berry, C., Giovannini, A. (eds) Developing England’s North. Building a Sustainable Political Economy: SPERI Research & Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62560-7_12
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