Tory peer calls for £10,000 ‘citizens inheritance’ for all 30-year-olds
Ministers should hand all 30-year-olds a £10,000 “citizens inheritance” to tackle growing inequality as wealth shifts between generations, a Conservative peer has suggested.
Lord David Willetts, who leads the Intergenerational Centre think-tank, called for the next government to implement a major new policy to spread wealth in Britain.
It comes as new analysis suggests a hugely uneven £1.5tn wealth transfer to millennials is set to deepen current inequalities.
The research showed parents whose assets have been boosted by soaring property prices and final salary pensions are poised to pass on about £150,000 each on average to millennial children.
Lord Willetts cautioned that not enough has been done to spread wealth since Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation drive and right-to-buy scheme, and again raised the notion of a “citizens inheritance”.
The Tory peer, who first suggested a scheme six years ago while chairing the Intergenerational Commission, said: “It doesn’t matter if you are Conservative or Labour, a world in which inheritance matters more and earnings matter less is a less open and socially mobile society.
“[Inheritances are now] coming to people quite late in life. It will reinforce a pattern of inheritance where the grandkids will benefit.”
Lord Willetts, a former MP for Havant who also chairs the UK Space Agency, told The Guardian the scheme could be funded by lowering the threshold at which inheritance tax is paid, abolishing exemptions, and lowering the 40 per cent tax rate.
