Raise Bank of England inflation target to 3%, says leading thinktank

The proposed charges would by the most radical shakeup since Gordon Brown handed the Bank independence for managing inflation in 1997. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock

The Bank of England should be set a 3% inflation target and given powers to crash borrowing costs below zero in response to future economic shocks, a leading thinktank has said.

The Resolution Foundation said Britain required a big overhaul of its economic toolkit to avoid decades of rising debt or austerity, and called for reforms at the Bank and the Treasury to get a “bigger bang for each buck”.