No free passes for the powerful

The property tax system needs a radical rethink to eradicate double taxation, evenly spread the cost of social housing and ensure that the most powerful pay

In Animal Farm, George Orwell’s 1945 dystopian novel about the spread of totalitarianism, a line that readers might remember is “four legs good, two legs better” which was what eventually happened when the ruling class of pigs started to act like the humans they had fought to remove.

It’s a classic example of “one rule for us, another for you”. Sadly, it hasn’t gone away. The recent consultation on vacant sites with a ...