Robert Paston

For, you know, for example.

So, I mean, in the end, you know, it's the halfway house that has caused so much trouble.

Surely what we've got to have, I would argue, is a big bang.

where we decide these are the areas of policy where local authorities or mayors should know the requirements of their area better than central government.

And they seem to me the obvious ones are things like housing.

They are business construction.

They are infrastructure construction and they are skills.

And so in my view, you would want radical devolution there.

in those areas, and you would also want them – you'd want the connection with local people through tax-raising powers, and you would therefore give them much more ability to raise money locally.

One of the things – another thing we talked to Jeremy Hunt about was one of the reasons why planning and building is so much more efficient in France is because local authorities keep the revenue gain from the buildings.

Yeah.

No, no, but I'm talking about the funding.

I'm talking about the ability to raise more locally.

In general, we need a wholesale reform of the whole rates and transfer system.

And broadly, money should be raised locally and deployed locally.

One of the policy objectives that pretty much any government would want to have is to provide incentives both for people in work to work more or people who are on part time work to do more work or indeed to get people who are not working at the moment back into the workplace.

So if this is an example of something that is sort of nice in theory, but potentially disastrous in practice, what would be, you know, if you had to choose, you know, one or two things that could increase the size of the workforce, you know, fairly significantly, what would they be?

Lots of employers say they can't get the people they want, even at a time when unemployment is rising.

But I thought you were a believer, Paul, in equalising capital gains and income tax.

And I'm going to do you a favour now, because I'm going to tell our viewers that behind you are your two latest books.