Tax Profits Not People
Stop punishing the poor, start taxing profits
The UK is still in the grip of a cost of living crisis and people are also being hammered on everyday essentials like fuel and housing. While people become poorer, the utility companies are coining it in. Unite the union says this must stop. It’s time to tax profits, not people.
UK energy companies are coining it in while people struggle to make ends meet. We're paying the highest energy costs in Europe. This hurts jobs, communities and incomes. According to Unite the union and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, every UK household is being hammered for £500 a year while the energy companies make a staggering £30 billion.
- People are paying for this through forever-rising prices.
- Electricity prices are roughly double what they were five years ago.
- Gas prices are roughly 74-80% higher than they were five years ago
- Average water bills have also soared over the past five years. But yet again, the private companies are raking it in while the service is a shambles. Last year, pre-tax profits in England and Wales for water were estimated at approximately £1.7-£2 billion.
And it is not just the utilities, private landlords and raking it in:
- Housing costs keep climbing too. Over the past five years, UK private rents have jumped by more than a quarter (up by approximately 25% to 30% overall). In some urban hotspots, rises are even sharper.
“Instead of snatching crumbs from workers, pensioners and disabled people, Labour should target the massive concentration of wealth built up by the richest 1 per cent."
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary
A wealth tax would work
- A one-off emergency 1% wealth tax on the assets of the "super-rich" would:
- Apply to individuals with fortunes exceeding £4 million.
- Generate approximately £25 billion per year
- Help fund pay increases for public sector workers to fill the more than 100,000 vacancies in the NHS
It's time for the government to target the richest 1 per cent