Composing motion 23 plus amendment and motions, 25, 26 and 27
A new prime minister is an opportunity to reboot what a Labour government looks like, who it stands for and to deliver a new political and economic strategy that works for most working people.
Congress notes that our communities bear the scars of fourteen years of austerity. Many workers feel like our public services need a bailout.
The Labour government has delivered changes that will improve lives – including the Employment Rights Act, the Renters’ Rights Act, the Passenger Railway Services Act, scrapping the two-child limit and increases in the minimum wage.
But Congress notes that Britain still suffers from crumbling public services, stagnating wages and living standards, poor growth and productivity, growing youth unemployment, and widening inequality.
This fraying social and economic fabric has been exacerbated by cuts and outsourcing at the BBC, as well as the deterioration of public arts provision by local and national government.
Congress notes the effects of the Iran war on the cost of living. Fuel prices at the pump have spiked, and energy costs rose by 13 per cent in July with the average bill reaching £1,862 per year. Lenders have also raised rates, increasing mortgage repayments.
Congress further notes that while inflation has reduced from 2021–24 levels and 2022s’ 41-year high of 14.2 per cent RPI, wages have lagged. Households are now significantly worse off. In April, 79 per cent of adults reported an increase in their cost of living. By November, food is expected to have become 50 per cent more expensive compared to 2021.
Congress is alarmed that, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, since January 2026 the energy industry has posted profits of £26.2bn (as of May), and TUC analysis reveals banks paid £25bn in bonuses for the financial year ending March 2026.
Congress notes that global tech giants exercise significant power over the media sector. The likes of Google, Meta and X consume advertising revenue and control access to online information through AI summaries and the algorithmic curation of news.
Congress is alarmed that such dominance has come at the expense of workers and public access to quality news. Tech companies have profited from the largescale theft of journalists’ work and supplanted trusted sources while failing to take responsibility for the discrimination, disinformation, and AI-generated fake news published on their platforms.
Congress believes that the same companies that plundered and profited from the sector should pay their fair share in its preservation. The NUJ has called for an ongoing digital tax to sustain future funding.
Congress believes that to counter the threat of Reform and the far right this new strategy must avoid taking the country into divisive debates around both nationalism and EU/single market membership and instead focus on a programme to unite working people in hope, with delivery of a better future.
Congress agrees that economic and political power is too concentrated and welcomes discussion of the need to build an active, productive state to lower the cost of living, control the essentials of life, support reindustrialisation and foster growth across the UK.
Congress believes we cannot fix a crisis of this magnitude with incrementalism. Congress calls on the new prime minister to be bolder and more radical by:
i. tackling inequality by taxing wealth and making corporations pay their fair share
ii. providing an emergency cash injection and sustained investment for public services
iii. increasing wages through sectoral bargaining across the economy
iv. robust action to tackle the cost of living, and the profiteering from banks and the big corporations to pursue a return to pre-April 2022 energy price cap rates
v. ensuring that the maximum possible flexibility in the use of state aid, fiscal policy, investment, public ownership and procurement, and protection of manufacturing is not adversely restricted by Treasury rules or any future trading relationships. For example, Congress notes single market membership would still reverse the UK’s progress to rail public ownership
vi. develop the importance of the UK’s trading relationship with the EU and the world economy to improve trade, while respecting the result of the 2016 referendum on EU membership.
Congress calls on the TUC General Council to campaign for:
a. bringing outsourced services back in-house
b. ending private equity’s grip on public services and the assets and infrastructure needed for these services
c. bringing key utilities back into public ownership
d. a digital services tax (and take all opportunities to defend and strengthen it)
e. a six per cent windfall tax on tech giants to be invested in the news sector to protect jobs, improve conditions, and increase access to quality news
f. an extensive package of financial support for households facing rising costs
g. an end to the Iran war, a cause of energy price volatility
h. increased investment in renewables, reducing dependency on fossil fuel markets, and a massively expanded and affordable green public transport system
i. a mass council house building programme, including through a publicly owned housing corporation
j. a mass programme of home insulation, boosting energy efficiency
Congress calls on the General Council to:
vii. press the new PM and cabinet to be bold in implementing this approach
viii. commission rigorous research into progressive taxes on wealth including property, companies and large multinational corporations ahead of the next budget. The research should examine whether taxes on income from work, wealth, company profits, and consumer spending are fairly balanced, and whether they generate sufficient revenue for sustained investment in all public services to protect the social contract
ix. make improving living standards for low-paid workers a priority campaign
x. work with unions, charities and campaigners to organise a national day of action, calling for wealth taxes and public service investment.
Mover: UNISON
Seconder: National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
Supported by: National Union of Journalists; Transport Salaried Staff’s Association; Educational Institute of Scotland; Equity; ASLEF