BRITAIN must adopt “European” styles of taxation to end austerity and properly invest in public services, a think tank has said.

A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that yearly public spending would rise by £2,500 per person if the British government matched the average taxation plans of many of its European partners.

This increase would mean that government spending would end up matching the European average of 48 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), rather than the current spending of 40 per cent.