This is the time of the year when the Chancellor begins to shape his annual Budget. He will be getting suggestions from all sorts of pressure groups who want him to treat them as a special case.

One group of the electorate that does need some consideration is those millions of people who pay income tax at the 40 per cent rate, the group that constitutes Middle England.

This Coalition Government has taken tens of thousands of low income earners out of the tax system by adjusting the thresholds, so they have benefited. The rich have certainly done very nicely with the top rate of tax payers having five per cent chopped off their bills, leaving the middle group in exactly the same position as when they came to power.

Nothing has been done for them and there is no recognition of the burden they are bearing. Be in no doubt, the huge bills left by bankers’ woeful investments, coupled with a worldwide slowdown has left Middle England picking up the bills.

Tens of thousands of West Midland workers and small business owners are being discriminated against by a Government that in the early days of office, kept trumpeting forth about the fact that we are all in this mess together. Not so, for by the actions of George Osborne over the last three years, those taxpayers forking out 40 per cent are entitled to feel pretty aggrieved.

In just 15 months, a general election is due, and the Chancellor would be well advised to take some positive action to be fair to those who have, relatively, had to bear the heaviest burden. This recession has caused many to see their spending power reduced, and consequently their standard of living taking a knock. Thousands have lost jobs as a direct result of the fiscal measures that Government has taken.

The 50 per cent should be reintroduced, for the five per cent reduction has been a PR disaster. I also believe that a 60 per cent rate should be introduced for all those earning more that £250,000 per annum, and even a 75 per cent for those earning more that £500,000 a year. Tax gathered should be used to drop the 40 per cent rate by at least 1 per cent.

Radical perhaps, but it could win David Cameron the next election.

* Russell Luckock is chairman of pressings firm AE Harris