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Burnham’s first Budget: Unlocking the treasure that can transform Britain

With just weeks to go before Burnham’s first Budget (set for 28 October), the fight is on to win a Budget for the 99.9%. That’s why— you may have noticed— the billionaire’s press is full of scare stories again. It’s also why we headed down to Number 10 North, to deliver your message to the Prime Minister.

A Treasure trove of possibilities

On Tuesday 15 September, we made history by delivering the first ever petition to the new Prime Minister’s office in Manchester. Alongside 38 Degrees, Oxfam GB and Patriotic Millionaires UK, we gathered more than 180,000 of your signatures, calling on Burnham to invest in Britain by taxing the extreme hoarded wealth of the super-rich. Polling shows the country is with us: 64% of people agree the richest aren’t paying their fair share. Help us spread the word by sharing our hand-in video.

The reason is simple. Britain isn’t working. While a tiny handful have accumulated unbelievable fortunes, millions are struggling to pay the bills, buy enough food, or afford even the smallest non-essentials— a weekend away, or meal out with the family. Tens of millions of us pay our fair share week in, week out, but the tax system has been rigged so the wealthiest can opt out as they please. Starmer was driven from office because he failed to change this simple fact.

Burnham has promised to make life better, more affordable and more hopeful, to tackle the cost of living crisis, to end austerity and rebuild our communities and the places we love. We hope at this Budget he will lay out a serious plan for how he is going to achieve that. To do so he needs to find the money to finally invest in Britain. 

That’s why along with our petition, we took him a treasure chest. Well, the chest was symbolic of the country’s hidden, hoarded wealth, but it came with a real treasure map: 10 policies that could raise upwards of £50 billion a year to improve everyone’s quality of life whilst tackling inequality and making the country fairer. Here’s a flavour…

  • Simply reforming Capital Gains Tax, so that those living off wealth are taxed the same as those working for a living, could raise £11.3billion. That’s just short of what’s needed to fully fund the construction of 90,000 social homes, which would not only make a serious dent in the housing crisis, but return an expected £50billion in benefits to the UK economy. 
  • Our Wealth Tax, a tiny 2% on wealth over £10million, is a painless way to raise £24 billion a year, enough to build and maintain a comprehensive, universal, NHS-style social care system.
  • Just closing the carried interest loophole which gives private equity, venture capitalists and hedge funds a sweetheart deal on their profits would raise over £500million a year, that could practically double the current Pride in Place budget, allowing up to 3 million more households in 500 more neighbourhoods to benefit from transformative projects like reopening libraries, repairing community sports halls, cleaning up parks, fixing broken streetlights, and bringing hollowed out high streets back to life. 
  • Stopping rich multinational corporations evading tax by a pay where you play system would raise another £5 billion a year, enough to finally close the school’s funding gap that’s undermining our children’s education. 

This is just a flavour, but the point is these aren’t abstract numbers. They are real choices that could make life better in every corner of the country. Burnham promised to tackle the big issues that have been ignored for too long, and ensure people can live well, not just scrape by. This is how he can do it.

We’ve had forty years of cowboy economics, from selling off national assets in the 1980s to nearly two decades of austerity. These choices have damaged communities, the economy, and the very fabric of our democracy. At every step, we were told these policies were essential to attract “wealth creators”. Competing with comically low tax rates, turning a blind eye to corporate rip‑offs and letting offshore loopholes flourish doesn’t attract wealth creators; it attracts wealth extractors. And Britain doesn’t need them. 

The real wealth creators are the workers, homemakers, nurses, teachers, and yes business owners who’ve built something in Britain, and happily give back to this country (like the 80% of wealthy people polled that support fairer taxation). 

This Budget is a chance for the Prime Minister to pick our side, and hand a Budget to the real wealth creators.  We’ve given Burnham the treasure map. Now it’s time for him to set a course for a new horizon.