Creating a Fairer, Greener Economy

Green MPs will fight for an economy that delivers security, wellbeing and a better quality of life for everyone, as well protecting our environment and enabling us to tackle the climate crisis with the ambition and speed it demands.

Privatisation has failed. Dividends are paid to shareholders while infrastructure is run into the ground. The Green Party is committed to the public ownership of public services, so they are run to serve us all, rather than to increase the wealth of shareholders.

Elected Greens would push for a Green Economic Transformation to include:

• A £40bn investment per year in the shift to a green economy over the course of the next Parliament.
• A carbon tax to drive fossil fuels out of our economy and raise money to invest in the green transition.
• Bringing the railways, water companies and the Big 5 retail energy companies into public ownership.

We need to build the sustainability of our communities through the transition.

Green MPs will push for:

• A £12.4bn investment in skills and training, equipping workers to play a full role in the green economy.
• A share of community ownership in local sustainable energy infrastructure such as wind farms.

Taxing wealth fairly and borrowing to invest

While our public services are crying out for investment, the number of billionaires in the UK has risen from 29 to 171 since 2010. Elected Greens will push for major changes to the tax system to simplify and align the rates of tax paid on income and investment gains, whatever their source, and to fairly tax excessive concentrations of wealth.

These measures should include:

• A Wealth Tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1bn. Only a tiny minority of people would pay this tax.
• Reform of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to align the rates paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains. This would affect less than 2% of all income taxpayers.
• Aligning the tax rates on investment income with the tax and National Insurance Contribution rates on employment income.
• Removing the Upper Earnings Limit that restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by high earners.

We estimate that by the end of the next Parliament these changes could raise additional revenue of between £50 and £70bn per year in 2024 prices. A carbon tax set initially at £120 per tonne of carbon emitted and rising over ten years to a maximum of £500 per tonne, would raise up to an additional £80bn.

We are prepared to borrow to invest. Allowing ourselves to be trapped in a self-imposed fiscal straitjacket is a false economy. Investing in protecting our climate now will save vast costs in the future, and spending on decent public services and fit-for-purpose infrastructure is essential for a flourishing future for us all.

SME and community sector support

Small and medium-sized business are the lifeblood of our economy and our communities.

Green MPs will press for:

• Regional mutual banks to be set up to drive investment in decarbonisation and local economic sustainability.
• £2bn per year in grant funding for local authorities to help businesses decarbonise.
• Community ownership to be encouraged through greater access to government funding in the transition to a zero-carbon economy.