SIR: I think the mini budget gets a C+ at best. It seems politicians just can’t help themselves fiddling about with policies until they have killed off any chance of making any real difference. It all sounds so good when being delivered at the despatch box but when you get into the detail one wonders what the real goal is, token politics perhaps.

The stamp duty change fails to address underlying issues with the current charges which are both rapacious and so complicated to administer many unwittingly break the rules. As for giving business a £1,000 pounds for engaging furloughed staff, any business making such a decision based on this would be insane, a total waste of £9BN.

Meanwhile our chancellor introduces a series of VAT changes along with a voucher schemes for hospitality so targeted I doubt it will make any difference at all. An administrative nightmare.

Let us not forget, the HMRC has openly given up collecting tax from anyone who does not wish to cooperate in making declarations. Governments have tinkered away at the rules to the point that their own civil servants can’t keep up.

This mini budget then heaps another bunch of complex rules on top of an already failing system.

This government has a chance to entirely rethink tax and income rules to simplify the system and address exploitation from people and organisations who pay no tax at all but enjoy the rights of citizenship and trade. Where is the dynamic thinking, evidently not with this team!

Tim Bittleston,

Abbots Worthy