An unlikely coalition of leading economists, green campaigners, millionaires, fuel poverty groups and a union have warned Rachel Reeves that Labour’s key election promise of national renewal cannot be delivered without investment in public services and infrastructure.
World-famous economists Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, both leading experts on wealth inequalities, together with 28 other organisations – including Greenpeace, Oxfam, and the Patriotic Millionaires – have urged the Chancellor to introduce a wealth tax on the assets of the super-rich to reduce inequalities and fairly fund measures to help tackle the climate crisis.
Writing in an open letter, the coalition said that by introducing a wealth tax on the assets of Britain’s richest individuals in the upcoming Budget Reeves could “reduce the stark inequalities in this country and help raise the vital funds needed to ensure that the transition to a greener, cleaner, more prosperous future is fair for everyone at home and abroad”.
The coalition – which also includes Britain’s second biggest union Unite, the National Pensioners Convention and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition – highlights that the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments will leave up to 2 million pensioners struggling with their bills, and that the government’s failure to invest in a green transition for steel in Britain will leave up to 2,800 steelworkers without a job in Port Talbot.
Pointing to a recent speech made by the Prime Minister, in which he said that those with the “broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden”, the groups told Reeves that they agree and that the rationale for a new tax on assets of the super wealthy in the UK has never been clearer, since: “The richest 250 families in the UK sit on a combined wealth of £748bn; 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70% of us; and the carbon footprint of the richest 0.1% is 12 times bigger than the average person in the UK.”
The letter follows a growing chorus of individuals and organisations – from unions to billionaires and millionaires – calling for the introduction of a wealth tax to help rebuild the economy, fix public services and fairly fund measures to tackle the climate crisis.
A new report from Greenpeace UK finds that a new temporary 2.5% tax on all individual wealth above £10 million – impacting fewer than 75,000 people – could generate a minimum of £130 billion in revenue for the government over the next five years.
The revenue could be used to improve the lives of tens of millions of people in the UK and cut carbon emissions, the report finds. Measures such as insulating all 19 million draughty homes, capping bus fares, and retraining the 3.2 million high-carbon workers in the green industries of the future, could all easily be funded through the tax.
Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, Georgia Whitaker, said:
“How can the government think that taxing the vast wealth of the very richest in our society is more controversial than cutting winter fuel payments to poor pensioners? These aren’t ‘difficult decisions’, these are political choices, and it’s time the Chancellor made the right one. By tapping into just a fraction of the wealth of a few thousand multi-millionaires and billionaires – who are also frequently the biggest polluters – we can pay for climate solutions benefitting millions.”
Claire Peden, Organiser at Unite, who have endorsed the letter, said:
“We need serious investment in our crippled public services and in industry to ensure a prosperous future for Britain’s workers and their communities. We are fed up with ordinary people bearing the brunt of austerity, we are fed up watching the government and the profiteers pick the pockets of pensioners, so, it’s time to rebalance the books. We won’t get the money needed, just by waiting for growth. This is why Unite welcomes the groundswell that is forming to demand we tax the super-rich to pay for public services and invest in jobs and the economy.”
