Comprising Motions 28, 29, 34, 35 and 36 plus amendments
Conference knows that workers and their families can see every day that the economy is broken. After years of falling living standards working people’s family budgets remain under huge pressure.
Congress notes that we are the sixth richest economy in the world, but our economy has deep inequalities and the way that wealth is divided is increasingly unequal.
The UK is home to a record number of billionaires, and the top one per cent hold more wealth than the entire bottom 50 per cent. In 1990, there were just 15 billionaires in the UK, but since then their number has jumped to 156. The wealth of the richest in society continues to soar. The richest 50 families are worth about £500bn, the same as half the entire UK population.
The UK has greater wealth inequality than most developed economies. Last year’s report by The Fairness Foundation found the UK’s wealth gap has grown by 50 per cent in eight years, while the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that destitution had increased by 150 per cent in the last seven years. Fairer, better taxes can deliver a stronger economy, reduce poverty, fund better public services and national defence. Yet wealth is taxed at far lower rates than income, and in many cases not taxed at all. This is a political choice. Ordinary workers are paying more while the super-rich hoard wealth and benefit from outdated, unfair tax rules. The government must urgently explore how the UK’s tax system could be reformed, including to ensure that wealth and the highest incomes are taxed more fairly.
The UK welfare system – both the state pension and working age benefits – is one of the least generous among comparable nations. Congress is dismayed the government has attempted to cut welfare benefits as a direct result of the continued refusal to tax wealth and acceptance of self-imposed fiscal rules.
Furthermore, while the government’s industrial strategy and Employment Rights Bill are welcome first steps they don’t go far enough to tackle the legacy of decades of weak business investment, offshoring, outsourcing, privatisation and austerity.
Congress is concerned this approach is leaving the door open to the far-right Reform, who offer no solutions and only sow more division.
Congress condemns 15 years of Conservative-led Westminster governments’ austerity policies. They created a profound crisis affecting all public services and the staff delivering them – from the NHS to local government, education and social care. Years of underinvestment and austerity have left vital services overstretched, understaffed and unable to meet the needs of our communities.
Congress notes the harm caused by fourteen years of substantial real-terms cuts which continue to impact adversely on children’s life chances and on the living standards, morale and wellbeing of our communities.
Congress is dismayed that too many public buildings, including schools and hospitals, are in a dire state of repair.
Congress further asserts that real-terms cuts to spending on our public services and welfare system will reduce opportunity for our children and young people, further damaging life chances and hit the poorest hardest.
In 2024, the country voted for real change and to end austerity.
Poverty isn’t just morally wrong, it’s bad for the economy and has considerable economic and social costs. Tackling poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity should be a key government priority.
So, there is a choice. Congress believes that the money is there to address this. HMRC estimates the UK tax gap to be £46.8bn, and outside tax experts estimate it to be more than twice that – around £100bn. If we taxed the richest one percent just one percent, that would generate about £25bn. We need a wealth tax now.
Congress therefore believes that politicians must make the case for redistributive taxation and a more equal society.
Trade unions support progressive taxation. We agree with a system that ensures we all contribute to the revenues the government needs to improve our public services, reduce poverty and grow our economy – and where those with higher incomes, who are better able to afford a higher contribution, pay a larger share.
But our current system is broken and the UK tax system needs urgent reform.
Those at the top have seen their wealth grow – while paying far lower tax rates than many whose incomes come from earnings.
Congress calls on the General Council to press the Labour government to:
i. commit to taxing wealth, not just work
ii. oppose austerity and promote tax justice as a means to fund public services
iii. support a crack-down on tax avoidance and tax evasion
iv. restore and expand social security spending for children and families in need, the unemployed, disabled people, and pensioners
v. remove the punitive welfare policies introduced during Tory austerity, including the two-child benefit cap
vi. commit to protecting benefits for disabled and vulnerable people
vii. end punitive sanctions and invest in DWP’s workforce, to provide essential help and support
viii. invest in HMRC’s workforce to go after tax avoiders and evaders. Congress is appalled by the recent findings of the Public Accounts Committee that HMRC does not know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK or how much they contribute overall.
Congress believes Labour should adopt policies that begin to restructure the economy to improve productivity and investment and bring about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people. This is to include devolving power to workers through:
a. extending sectoral collective bargaining throughout the economy to enhance cohesion in our communities through improved living standards, job security and embedding trade union values of solidarity and equality
b. creating conditions to allow unions to negotiate the delivery of Labour’s pledge to oversee the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”, to reduce inequality and improve public services:
– a new economic strategy which removes restrictive and arbitrary fiscal rules and raises day-to-day public spending
– an improved industrial strategy to create a new generation of publicly owned or supported industries, including particular consideration to water, transport, mail, telecommunications, steel and energy industries, ensuring there are stable universal services and utilities across the country.
Congress therefore agrees to campaign for:
1. an increase in taxes on those with the highest incomes
2. the urgent introduction of progressive wealth taxes
3. increasing capital gains tax
4. reforming pensions tax relief
5. a windfall tax on highly profitable banks
6. full funding of our public services to ensure that schools, colleges and other frontline services can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver the high-quality services that the public expects of the welfare state
7. the removal of opportunities for CEOs and corporations to exploit our public services for profit and to line their own pockets
8. capital budgets to be increased across the whole public sector to ensure buildings are safe and well-maintained.
Congress agrees to launch a high-profile and constructive campaign in support of the above and consider a national demonstration against austerity in spring 2026.
Mover: Unite
Seconder: NASUWT
Supporters: Public and Commercial Services Union, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Accord, National Education Union, Communication Workers Union,
Fire Brigades Union