Budget: tax breaks for big business and wealthy do nothing to ease the cost of living crisis

A Budget that gives a £9 billion tax break to the biggest businesses and a multibillion pensions tax giveaway to higher earners is the wrong approach in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

Tax Justice UK Executive Director, Robert Palmer, said: “Jeremy Hunt tells NHS workers that we can’t afford to give them a pay rise during this cost of living crisis. Yet he just handed out a £9 billion tax break to the biggest businesses and promised a multibillion pension tax giveaway to the highest earners”. 

“Thousands of NHS workers are using foodbanks, there won’t be a single nurse with £60,000 a year spare to take advantage of the Chancellor's pension tax giveaway”.

“The 12 new investment zones look like being glorified business parks - they tend to shuffle activity around the country rather than generate new enterprise.”

“The Chancellor’s measures on child care are welcome, but tax breaks for the well off and big corporations are not the answer to our cost of living crisis”.

“Jermey Hunt calls this his growth budget, but you can't have sustainable growth if our workers are getting sicker, can't get to work or have trouble accessing essential public services. We need greater investment in our NHS and public services now. Politicians should be taxing wealth not pouring more fuel onto the wealth inequalities that already exist in our society.”

A Tax Justice UK briefing shared with MPs ahead of the Budget set out six wealth tax policies that could raise up to £50 billion towards rebuilding the NHS and public services.

The briefing includes a proposal for a 2% annual wealth tax on people with £10 million in assets. This policy alone could raise £22 billion

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