London, UK. Today, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a highly anticipated national budget that fails to tax extreme wealth, at the expense of ordinary people. The Chancellor has chosen to increase bus fares and punish people on low incomes while British billionaires – with a total net worth of around £171 billion – are allowed to continue amassing staggering wealth from passive income.
The government committed £3.4 billion over three years to the Warm Homes Plan but didn’t announce the sweeping improvements needed to tackle the climate crisis and set up communities to thrive. Reeves made minor changes affecting the wealthiest by increasing some taxes on landowners, but the Chancellor missed a major opportunity to harness the huge public support for a wealth tax and ensure the super rich pay their share to:
- Modernise and climate proof hospitals, care homes and other necessary public services damaged by decades of underfunding;
- Finance a just transition to safe renewables along with an energy guarantee ensuring nobody gets their energy cut off this winter;
- create thousands of future proof jobs and support the workers in carbon-intensive industries let down by the inaction of successive governments.
Tommy Vickerstaff, UK Team Lead at 350.org said:
“Today’s budget contained some positive moves, but very much felt like tinkering around the edges of what is really possible to improve the lives of ordinary working people and our communities. The Chancellor has focussed on a series of small changes in the hope of repairing the damage inherited from the previous government, but has failed to impose an effective wealth tax on the ultra rich.
Rachel Reeves talked a lot about difficult decisions having to be made, but with a minimum of £130 billion on the table from a strong wealth tax, we must collectively challenge her choice here and push for more. We need to raise the bar for decision-makers at Westminster and at a global level. Momentum for a wealth tax is building and we must use it by demanding the UK government does its international duty by backing a wealth tax at the G20 Summit in Rio next month.”
Kate Blagojevic, Associate Director for Europe Campaigns and Organising at 350.org said:
“A progressive wealth tax on the super rich would generate billions in additional revenue each year to boost domestic spending and also help the UK fulfill its historic responsibility to tackle the climate crisis especially in the Global South. With the UN climate conference in Azerbaijan just weeks away, the wealthiest countries must prepare to increase the amount they are committing to the global climate finance goal. The UK needs to massively improve its existing pledge and raise the money by taxing the ultra rich – a step that Reeves notably failed to take today.”
Media contact: Mark Raven, [email protected], +447841474125