Saturday, 24 March 2012 21:13
George Osborne, rather like Gordon Brown, thinks of his Budgets, in acutely political terms and calculations.
The top rate tax cut gives a boost to 328,000 people, whereas the stamp duty hikes could at most affect 4,000 people – 1% of those at the top getting tax cuts. And that is if they all decide to sell their houses. In November 2011 a mere 121 homes were sold worth £2 million or more, 98 of them in London.