Rowan Williams calls for UK wealth tax to tackle ‘spiralling inequality’
Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has called on the UK government to impose a wealth tax on the super-rich to help tackle “spiralling inequality”, which he said was “deeply damaging to our collective morale and trust”.
Williams, who was the most senior bishop in the Church of England from 2002 to 2012, on Thursday joined a growing group of moral leaders demanding a one-off tax on the richest 1% of the population to help close the “staggering” gap between the richest and poorest in society.
“Spiraling inequality is a major issue in our society, and all the evidence suggests this is deeply damaging to our collective morale and trust,” Williams said. “A wealth tax of the kind we are backing recognises that vastly disproportionate rewards for a very small number of citizens will not make for a cohesive and just national community.”
Williams told the super-rich they should not view paying back to wider society as a tax burden but as “an opportunity to build a stable, sustainable economy that works for everyone”.
Government figures show the richest 1% of households in the UK each have at least £3.6m. At the other end of the scale, the poorest 10% of households have £15,400 or less, with almost half burdened with more debts than they have in assets, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics last month.
It means the gap between rich and poor had widened to the largest in more than a decade even before the Covid pandemic struck.
Williams joined other leaders in the Church Action for Tax Justice campaign group demanding that the government take urgent action to combat inequality by introducing an initial one-off wealth tax on the richest 1% of the UK population, and commit to reviewing the tax
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