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  • Open letter

Open letter to Chancellor: taxing the super-rich at the Budget

Dear Chancellor,

We are writing to you ahead of the Budget to urge you to introduce a new tax on assets for the super wealthy and ensure that the wealthiest individuals in our society contribute their fair share during the government’s promised decade of national renewal. This would 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. 

We represent diverse people and issues, from workers in a range of industries, to people struggling with their bills and those who want bold climate action, but ultimately we all want the same thing: warm homes to live in, lower bills, good green jobs and a fair transition for everyone.

The UK government has a legal obligation to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 and we are pleased to see some progress being made towards meeting this target since the new government came into office. But you, as Chancellor, also need to ensure that as we transition away from high-carbon industries, we do so in a way that is fair to people across the country and around the world. 

It’s clear that Labour’s key election promise of national renewal cannot be delivered without government investment in public services and infrastructure. By contrast, failing to provide that investment and support leads to human costs.  The decision to cut winter fuel payments will leave up to 2 million pensioners struggling with their bills, and failure to invest in a green transition for British steel will leave up to 2,800 steelworkers without a job in Port Talbot. 

There is more than enough money to pay to fix our public services, our economy, tackle the climate crisis and more. The rationale for a new tax on assets of the super wealthy in the UK has never been clearer: 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. As the Prime Minister said himself, those with the “broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden”.

An increasing range of groups, economists and commentators have come out in support of increasing taxes on the super-rich. G20 finance ministers have also agreed on the need to cooperate to tax ultra high net worth individuals, and ministers from Germany, Spain, South Africa, France and Brazil have indicated support for a levy on the super rich on the world’s 3,000 billionaires.  If the UK Government aspires to be a global leader on climate, we must make sure we are sufficiently supporting Global South countries who are disproportionately facing the impacts of the worsening climate crisis. Oxfam research has demonstrated the stark correlation between wealth inequality and overconsumption globally. The richest billionaires, through their polluting investments, are emitting a million times more carbon than the average person. The wealthiest 1 percent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 percent and by 2030, their carbon footprints are set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. If the UK Government aspires to be a global leader on climate, we must make sure we are sufficiently supporting low income countries who are disproportionately facing the impacts of the worsening climate crisis despite doing little to cause it..

Here in the UK the idea is even supported by many of the wealthy: three out of four people with £1 million spare in their accounts state that we need a proper wealth tax. Groups such as the Patriotic Millionaires and wealthy celebrities, such as Brian Cox, are all openly asking to be taxed more. This idea is also popular with the public – constituency level polling of 20,000 people across Great Britain by Survation showed that 82% of people would support the introduction of a wealth tax on the richest 1% of Britons to fund action on climate change. 

Just as the government is using windfall taxes on the extortionate profits of oil and gas companies to help fairly fund our transition to clean energy, it is only fair that super-rich individuals – who possess vast wealth and are the biggest emitters – are also taxed more on their assets to ensure we successfully and fairly tackle the climate crisis and ultimately create a society that is more equal and just.

We call on you to use the Budget to introduce the necessary measures without delay. 

Yours sincerely, 

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