Rachel Reeves is getting an expensive lesson in economics

It may prove to be just the first of many screeching U-turns. Whilst hobnobbing among the plutocrats in Davos this week, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that she may have to tweak her clamp-down on non doms, to make it less punitive for anyone who isn’t British, and happens to have a bit of money, to live in the UK. Sure, it is good that Reeves is learning from her mistakes. The only trouble is it is going to prove a very expensive education for the rest of us. 

It is only a couple of months since Reeves’s Budget introduced tough new rules for non doms, but it already seems the plans might need to be changed. ‘We have been listening to the concerns that have been raised by the non dom community,’ Reeves told Emma Tucker, the editor of the Wall Street Journal, in Davos. Apparently there will be some changes that allow non doms to bring money into the UK without instantly getting a big bill from HMRC, and some allowance for double-taxation treaties to make sure they are not taxed twice, especially on inheritances.