Top economists join climate campaigners, millionaires and Unite union in calls for a UK wealth tax

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.”

ENDS

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes to Editor:

1. Read the open letter to the Chancellor here

Full list of signatories:

Endorsed by Unite the Union, Unite for a Workers’ Economy

Signed by:

1. Will McCallum and Areeba Hamid, Co-Executive Directors at Greenpeace UK
2. Thomas Picketty, Professor at EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics Co-director, World Inequality Lab & World Inequality Database
3. Gabriel Zucman, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley‘s Goldman School of Public Policy, Chaired Professor at the Paris School of Economics, and Director of the EU Tax Observatory.
4. Dr Halima Begum, CEO, Oxfam
5. Simon Francis, Coordinator at the End Fuel Poverty Coalition
6. Ruth London, founding member at Fuel Poverty Action
7. Jamie Peters Interim CEO at Friends of the Earth
8. Jan Short, General Secretary National Pensioners Convention 
9. Robert Palmer Executive Director at Tax Justice UK
10. Rebecca Gowland, Executive Director at Patriotic Millionaires UK
11. Fran Boait, Co- Executive Director at Positive Money
12. Fatima Ibrahim, Co Executive Director at Green New Deal Rising
13. Ben Tippet, Author and Lecturer in Development Economist at King’s College London
14. Adrien Fabre, Economist at CNRS
15. Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the UK Women’s Budget Group.
16. Olivia Langhoff Executive Director of 350.org
17. Matthew McGregor CEO at 38 Degrees
18. Shanon Shah, Director at Faith For Climate
19. Sarah Edwards, Executive Director at Just Money Movement
20. TJ Chuah Co-director Med-Act
21. Louise Hazan, Co-founder at Tipping Point
22. Luke Hildyard Director at the High Pay Centre 
23. India Burgess, Head of Advocacy the Autonomy Institute
24. Neal Lawson, Executive Director at Compass
25. David Hillman, Director at Stamp Out Poverty
26. Priya Sahni-Nicholas and Jo Wittams, Co-Executive Directors, Equality Trust
27. Jean McLean, Interim Convenor, Green Economy Coalition
28. Satwat Rehman, CEO One Parent Families Scotland
29. James Sutton, Co-Director at Possible waiting for director name
30. Nimo Omer, Trustee Fairer Housing