As Britain faces sluggish growth and rising fiscal pressures, Independent readers have been vocal about who should foot the bill – and how.
A broad consensus has emerged: the wealthy must pay more. Rachel Reeves’s £100bn spending plans for housing, defence, and the NHS were met with approval in principle, but there is concern over how they’ll be funded in practice.
Readers rejected the idea that taxing millionaires would spark a mass exodus, calling this a long-standing myth. Instead, many urged Reeves to shift the tax burden from workers to billionaires, property investors, and tech giants.
Others argued that years of austerity, rising house prices, and privatised utilities have left the public footing the bill, while the richest accumulate wealth.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that any further economic downturn will “almost certainly” trigger fresh tax hikes, with council tax already set to rise at the fastest rate in a generation.
Here’s what you had to say:
Trickle-down economics is a falsehood.
0.3 per cent of the UK’s millionaires have left. A tiny proportion who probably didn’t even pay the same rate of tax as a worker. They obviously don’t care about the UK. I bet their assets and businesses still operate here, though. The USA has a capital flight tax, and China wouldn’t allow someone to make millions in China while sipping piña coladas in Dubai without paying tax. Stop with the faux fear that millionaires are our saviours – they pay as little as possible, and trickle-down economics is a falsehood.
Silvafox
What’s your view? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Sales tax on all foreign tech companies
If Reeves put a 10 per cent sales tax on all foreign tech companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter) we could not only afford the benefits and health bills, we could also afford to take the majority of workers out of Income Tax altogether.
She CHOOSES not to.
Pablo
How will £100bn be raised?
Tax hikes will come because Reeves has just announced over £100bn investment in housing, the NHS, defence and energy without saying how all this is going to be paid for.
The ‘spending review’ is barely worth the paper it’s written on without a detailed analysis of how this additional £100bn is raised. For me this spending is necessary and correct, but it has to be paid for. A responsible and sensible chancellor would already have plans in place, but so far Reeves has nothing to say on this.
ChrisMatthews
Tories added £1.6 trillion to the National Debt
2010–2024: the Tories add £1.6 trillion to the National Debt and the press barely raises an eyebrow. What do we get for it? Devastation of all our existing essential services, under-investment, a small number of new billionaires.
2025: Labour adds £194 billion to the National Debt. What for? Multiple long-term infrastructure projects. The press, orchestrated by the appalling ‘Sir’ Mel Stride, goes crazy. And we wonder why the place is falling apart.
Carnabyswhiskers
Things cost money
Things cost money. If we want more things, we have to give more money
Tax the rich first.
Godricson82
Take it from the hoarded billions
If you need the cash, then you take it from the hoarded billions that sit there doing nothing but gathering interest for the rich. That’s what the post-war Labour government did. You don’t confiscate their wealth – you merely make use of it while they don’t make use of it.
Donalds Troosers
Handing debt straight back to the private sector
All the money that would have gone to the Treasury via electricity, gas, water, etc. has all gone to shareholders. What a great idea – at the cost of the consumer.
We’re about to sort the debt out of Thames Water and hand it straight back to the private sector so someone else can rip the consumer off. It’s called capitalism.
LesMisrables
Reverse the damage done by Brexit
The obvious only way to repair the economy is to reverse the damage done by Brexit – more than £100 billion and counting…
Nicko
Either rejoin or get over it
The economy has been shrinking ever since we left the EU. Either rejoin or get over it and accept the inevitable.
Boy from ceiber
Taxing for public services is fundamental
Tax those of us who can afford it already
Taxing people (fairly) to fund public services is the fundamental point of the government.
SkigtheRat
Millionaire exodus is a long-standing myth
The answer is simple: the super-wealthy need to start paying their fair share in taxes.
The idea that fairer taxation provokes some kind of millionaire exodus is a long-standing myth. In reality, millionaires tend to be more immobile than the population as a whole, and there is no evidence that taxation has a significant impact on their movements.
It is important to push back against the fearmongering and demand that the super-wealthy pull their weight.
selkie
Shift the tax burden
As long as those tax hikes are on the wealthy side of the population, they are welcome.
It’s time to shift the tax burden from the bottom to the top.
AndrewB
Hoarding of wealth in housing
The safest and best investment over the last 30 years has been housing… the wealthy have been making money hand over fist on rising house prices.
Unfortunately, this has come at a price – young people and the poorest can no longer afford housing.
Taxes should be raised on this hoarding of wealth in housing to redress the balance. Of course, it will never happen, but until it does, the UK economy will be a basket case as increasing numbers of people spend higher proportions of their income on accommodation, with £0 left to spend in the economy.
ChrisMatthews
Billionaires will be leaving for Trumpland
Billionaires will be leaving the country and heading for Trumpland where their huge wealth will be better recognised as a great asset – to themselves.
stillaardvark3
You cannot cut your way to growth
Austerity being so effective. The national debt was hiked up during Cameron’s austerity drive.
You cannot cut your way to growth. You cannot sack your way to full employment.
Economists have plenty of source data from previous economic crashes – they know what works and what does not.
Cutting spending does not create demand.
Jim987
Raise VAT and raise the tax threshold for the poorest
You would be much better raising VAT and at the same time raising the tax threshold for the poorest to compensate.
They spend their money promoting growth. The issue would be having strong government fiscal discipline to avoid stimulating the inflationary effect.
Kwame
Non-dom tax policy risks economic harm
Interesting data for those who believe that taxing wealthy non-doms is a sensible policy. Bloomberg has analysed recent company data. There are about 74,000 non-doms in the country, and they are leaving at an increasing rate.
Normally around 300 move each year – last year it was 4,400+, 75 per cent up on the year before. Most are going to Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and Cyprus. If 18,000 leave, the tax will cost more than it raises. This policy only makes sense if supporters hate the wealthy so much that they are prepared to drag the whole country into poverty and collapse rather than have one wealthy person living here.
Dodgy Geezer
Public services need proper funding
Tax hikes will probably have to come anyway. We’ve been fed the delusion that we can have Scandinavian levels of public services on minimal US-style tax levels for years. The result is that public services have been cut to the point of collapse and need some serious cash to bring them back to a functional level. There needs to be a proper conversation about this, and the government needs to level with the public that it can have higher taxes and better services or revert to the low tax, private provision model favoured by the Tories and accept that we will have to pay privately if we want decent education and healthcare, leaving many without either.
Tanaquil2
Those with the largest incomes should pay the most tax
Let’s make sure it’s an easy choice this time; those with the largest incomes pay the most. I’d suggest a capital gains tax on those who have the most capital.
Sunak for example, he and his wife have £700 million, Duke of Westminster £20 billion. Then work down to those with only tens of millions.
Snaughter
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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