Finance Bill

Polly Billington Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Adrian Ramsay (Waveney Valley) (Green)]

This Finance Bill should be a chance to begin the vital work of transforming our economy to make it fairer, to restore public services, and to make our economy greener by investing in urgent climate and nature action. As such, I welcome the focus on public investment.

However, overall, the Green party’s view is that the Bill lacks vision for our future and does not deliver the ambitious and hopeful change that people voted for in July. I would argue that that is because it seeks to answer the wrong question. The Bill should not be designed to focus purely on growth for growth’s sake, but should instead focus on more modern and rounded ways of measuring economic success that deliver wellbeing, a liveable future, better standards of living and good-quality jobs. When delivering the Budget, the Chancellor referred to growth 32 times, but she did not mention climate or nature once. When the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s analysis warns that current spending plans will see inequality and poverty increase while average disposable incomes fall, the Government’s plans clearly are not going to deliver a fairer future for us all.

The Finance Bill was an opportunity to set things on the right track, because that is possible with the right choices. I was elected advocating specifically for a transformative wealth tax—for those with the broadest shoulders to bear the greatest financial responsibility for transforming our economy. Therefore, I very much hoped that this Finance Bill would seek to tax all kinds of wealth much more ambitiously to fund our future.

[Ms Polly Billington (East Thanet) (Lab)]

Does the hon. Gentleman have a model of a wealth tax from another country that has been successful in raising the amount of money he claims it would have raised?

[Adrian Ramsay]

I thank the hon. Member for that question—I always enjoy her contributions. Later in my speech I will talk about a specific model that I would propose, one that I put forward in the general election and that has the support of a number of researchers and academics. There are lots of models out there, including those that look at examples from other countries.

I am glad that the Government are taking steps to close the unfairness gap in the tax system, whereby income from working is taxed at a higher level than income from wealth or assets. Reforming capital gains tax has been a major policy priority for the Greens for some time; it is long overdue, and I commend the Chancellor for grasping that particular nettle. However, the Finance Bill could and should go even further, focusing on the very wealthiest in society. Over the past 10 years, the UK has become an increasingly unequal country. Between 2020 and 2022 alone, billionaire wealth in the UK increased by almost £150 billion. The five richest families in the UK are wealthier than the bottom 20% of the entire population. That last stat can be replaced with a more recent one: according to the Equality Trust, the UK’s five richest families now own more wealth than the bottom 13 million do. Both are startling facts.

To answer the question posed by the hon. Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington), a wealth tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million, and of 2% on assets above £1 billion, would demonstrate that this Government are serious about fairness. Figures that are backed up by researchers and academics suggest that such a wealth tax could raise tens of billions during this Parliament—much bigger than a number of the figures quoted by other Members today. It would show that the Government are serious about fairness, about transforming the economy and about investing for a better future.