5,000 signatures reached
To: Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Tax the super rich to stop cuts to public services
.jpg)
Close loopholes and tax people with over £10m more – invest the money in the NHS, schools and other services.
Why is this important?
Across the UK, living standards are falling and millions live in poverty, while the cost of living crisis has made affording the basics difficult. Public services we all rely on - our hospitals, schools, councils, childcare, public transport and social security - have been decimated after a decade of cuts. And now the government could be looking to cut them even further, after slashing the lifesaving international aid budget.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The government could find the money to support public services by taxing the very richest more.
The UK has the sixth largest economy in the world. But the huge amount of wealth in this country is held by a very small proportion of the population.
The UK’s unequal tax system is stacked in favour of the super-rich, fuelling inequality.
Unfair loopholes and far lower rates of tax on income from wealth than work mean the wealthiest in our society often pay proportionally lower taxes than a teacher or nurse, meaning they get richer at a faster rate.
The average wealth of the top ten richest people in the UK is now £21 billion — up nearly 50% in five years. If you earned £3600 every hour, it would take you over 665 years to save this amount.
A 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million could raise as much as £24 billion a year and affect just 20,000 of the very richest people.
Implementing wealth taxes in order to support communities across the country isn’t just sensible, but popular too. Almost three quarters of the public and 65% of UK millionaires who have been polled are in favour, as well as many unions, leading economists, think tanks, charities, and community groups.
Phil White, member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, says:
“The British people have always been proud of the shared public services we’ve created and are frustrated to see how they have been run into the ground.
The NHS, education, our water system, public transport and others desperately need funding but British people are being constantly squeezed - working hard week-on-week against rising costs. This makes the need for taxing the very richest even more important.
There’s plenty of money in the UK - but it’s stuck in the hands of the wealthiest - and while they get richer everyone else gets poorer.
We would be proud to pay more, because that’s what being patriotic is: investing in a stronger, fairer Britain, where our services, businesses, and communities thrive and everyone can succeed.”
We have the momentum to tax the super rich. Now we need Rachel Reeves to act. Will she side with the super rich or people like you and me?
Sign this petition to demand the Chancellor tax the super rich to rebuild our NHS, schools, and other public services.
Sources:
- Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires 'Ten tax reforms and closed loopholes to raise over £60bn in a single year'
- 72% of the public support a wealth tax over £10m, Tax Justice UK, May 2024
- 65% of UK millionaires support taxing the super rich more, Patriotic Millionaires, November-December 2024
- UK billionaires saw their collective wealth increase last year by £35 million a day to £182 billion, Oxfam, January 2025
- Average wealth of the top 10 richest people in the UK, Sunday Times Rich List, 2024
- 1 billion seconds is 31.68 years (Speeli). 21 x 31.68 =665.28 years. 3600 seconds in an hour.
