Britain has enough money to fix our problems. We just lack the political will to share it

There is enough money. Enough to fix our crumbling public services. Enough to support the most vulnerable people in our society. The trouble is, it has been concentrated in the hands of a few for too long.

Last weekend, the Sunday Times Rich List once again laid bare this reality: in 2025, the UK’s 350 wealthiest individuals now hold a staggering £772.8 billion. It’s also impossible to ignore that some of these individuals have made money in industries that profit from social harm or public need – from property empires and asylum hotels, to gambling and the extraction of fossil fuels. These are not sectors creating shared prosperity. In fact, many have been built on the back of public goods that have been steadily privatised. We have ended up with an economy in which we pay more and get less, in which our hard-earned money flows upwards and concentrates at the top.

Meanwhile, disabled people face brutal cuts to benefits, a lifeline for most. Pensioners are losing their winter fuel allowance. Families struggling in poverty are still punished by the two-child benefit cap. Bills are going up, far above wages rising. The housing crisis deepens, pushing many out of their local communities. Food banks continue to grow in their numbers. Yet we are constantly told that we’ve “maxed out the credit card”.

This isn’t true. We have wealth in this country, we just don’t have a fair system to redistribute it.

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• UK’s tax system lets the wealthy off the hook, report finds – and traps Northerners in inequality

A tax system which allows the super-rich to grow their wealth while the vast majority is getting poorer is fundamentally regressive. The number of billionaires in the UK has grown significantly – from 15 in 1990 to 165 in 2024. At the same time, inequality in the UK’s overall wealth distribution has dramatically increased, according to the Equality Trust, with 50 richest families holding more wealth than 50% of the population. We need a tax system that closes loopholes, taxes wealth at the same rate as income and guarantees that wealthy individuals and corporations pay their fair share of tax.

The new Labour government made welcome first steps by increasing the higher rate of capital gains tax from 20% to 24% and removing the non-dom tax regime – which formerly allowed individuals residing abroad to avoid paying tax to the UK government on money made elsewhere in the world.

Yet there is much more that can be done. We can introduce a 2% levy on individuals who own assets worth more than £10 million, to raise £24bn pounds per year, apply national insurance to investment income, clamp down on tax havens.

What we lack is not ideas, but political will. After years of intense lobbying, even modest reforms face resistance. But the rest of us are desperate for a fairer system. There are benefits to doing this too. Closing the gap on inequality will strengthen the economy, reduce crime, improve health outcomes and help build back our local communities. In the midst of an environmental crisis, we can use additionally raised billions to fund the green transition and shield us from the impact of climate breakdown.

A common concern is that modest tax reforms targeting wealth could prompt the wealthy to leave the country. While a few individuals may indeed choose to relocate, the vast majority are likely to remain. This is largely because their assets are often not easily transferable, and the inconvenience and disruption of uprooting their lives typically outweigh the cost of paying slightly higher taxes. As wealth tax campaigner and author Gary Stevenson says, “the richest people are technically the easiest to tax.”

Moreover, if this were to become a significant issue, we could consider implementing an “exit tax” – similar to the policy in the United States, to ensure that those leaving still contribute their fair share.

There are even millionaires calling for tax reform. Patriotic Millionaires UK has been campaigning for the introduction of an extreme wealth line. Positioned as an equivalent tool to the poverty line, the group says it would “aim to establish the point at which too much wealth concentrated in too few hands has direct negative effects on the likes of democracy, society, the economy and the environment”.

Recent polling also shows that 77% of the public would prefer the government to raise taxes on the wealthiest rather than impose further cuts to public spending – and they’re right. This approach is not only fair, but essential for the long-term credibility of our government. Progressive tax reform would offer Labour as a clear and popular alternative to voters, especially in the wake of damaging local election results in May.

Perhaps one day, the Sunday Times Rich List will be a thing of the past – a relic of a time when inequality was not just tolerated, but glorified. Until then, we must question the systems that pool wealth and ask who truly pays the price for its accumulation. And most importantly, we must fix them.

Nadia Whittome is the Labour MP for Nottingham East.

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