REPORT: Politicians’ perspectives on wealth taxation & the barriers to reform in the UK
Why is it so difficult to tax the very richest? We spend a lot of time asking ourselves that question. To help answer it, we partnered with researchers at the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde on a major research project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Together, we interviewed MPs, MSPs and a Member of the Senedd from Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Green and Reform parties. The result is a rare insight into the political barriers that stand in the way of wealth tax reform across the UK, and what it might take to overcome them.
Researchers, academics and policy specialists can find the Executive Summary below or download the full report here.
General readers may prefer our one-page public summary, which distils the report’s key findings and most striking comments from politicians.
Executive Sumary
This report examines politicians’ perspectives on wealth taxation and the barriers to reform in the UK. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with parliamentarians across the political spectrum from England, Wales and Scotland, the research explores attitudes towards a range of potential tax reforms, including a 2% annual wealth tax, equalising capital gains tax rates with income tax and removing loopholes, extending the scope of National Insurance Contributions to include investment income, and council tax reform. In addition, interviews examined participants’ views on the barriers to support for such reforms, political dynamics and public attitudes surrounding wealth taxation, as well as the likelihood of and potential conditions for overcoming these barriers.
The findings demonstrate that political reticence towards wealth taxation cannot be explained by any single obstacle. Instead, this research found that support for greater taxes on wealth – or lack thereof – is shaped by an interconnected set of political, economic, administrative, communicative and ideological considerations. Importantly, the findings reveal a distinction between supporting greater taxation of wealth in principle and willingness to advocate for particular reforms in practice. This suggests that the barriers to politicians’ support for wealth taxation can generally be better understood as barriers to political feasibility than to wealth taxation itself, particularly among the centre and centre left of the political spectrum. Six principal themes emerged from the interviews.
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Economic Uncertainty and Policy Credibility
Uncertainty surrounding the economic consequences and policy credibility of wealth taxation emerged as a constraint on political support. Participants raised concerns about the potential impacts of higher levels of wealth taxation on economic growth, investment and behaviour including ‘capital flight’, as well as uncertainty around tax revenue raising potential and how governments would spend these funds. Importantly, this barrier was often not characterised as certainty that these negative consequences would occur, but instead the political difficulty of supporting reforms while substantial uncertainty remained. Participants therefore frequently regarded a stronger evidence base as necessary both to establish the effectiveness of proposed policies and to enable politicians in support of such policies to defend their position with confidence and credibility.
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2. Administrative Feasibility and Policy Design
Participants identified practical challenges surrounding the administrative feasibility of wealth taxation, including valuation of assets, determination of appropriate thresholds, liquidity, enforcement and compliance, alongside concerns about whether HMRC possesses sufficient capacity and resources to effectively administer more complex forms of wealth taxation. Findings also reveal that ideological support for greater taxation of wealth in principle did not necessarily translate into support for particular policy designs. Detailed proposals perceived as administratively workable were considerably easier for politicians to support. The research therefore highlights policy design as an important intermediary between general support for greater taxation of wealth and political endorsement of concrete reform.
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3. Political Dynamics, Incentives and Institutional Constraints
The findings suggest that electoral and party-political incentives can create significant barriers to politicians advocating for wealth tax reform, including among those who may be supportive of greater taxation of wealth in principle. Participants highlighted concerns about electoral consequences, political attacks and individual career progression, alongside the influence of party loyalty and the position of party leadership. Further, institutional features of the political system itself were considered a constraining factor to support. For instance, short electoral cycles were viewed as problematic for major changes to the tax system, as the benefits of policies may take longer to become visible than their immediate political costs, thereby leading to concerns that such reforms would leave a party open to opponent attacks and ultimately electoral risk. Conversely, strong and vocal leadership support, greater intra-party agreement and cross-party alignment were seen as capable of reducing the political risks associated with reform and paving the way for increased political support.
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4. Ideology, Values and Competing Visions of Society
Political support for wealth taxation was also shaped by deeper ideological beliefs and positions concerning wealth accumulation, redistribution, meritocracy and the appropriate role of the state. Some participants expressed views that framed existing wealth inequalities as the inevitable outcome of a capitalist system, and high levels of wealth as the legitimate reward for individual effort, entrepreneurship and economic contribution, with greater taxation therefore perceived as punitive towards success and aspiration. Others emphasised the starkness of wealth inequality and regressive nature of the tax system. These participants tended to regard greater taxation of wealth as a legitimate means to fund public services and address social and economic inequalities.
These competing understandings shaped whether wealth taxation was perceived as a tool to promote greater fairness and social good, or as an unjustified intervention that could penalise aspiration and undermine economic growth. The findings therefore suggest that some barriers to wealth taxation extend beyond concerns about the effectiveness or feasibility of particular policies, and reflect more fundamental beliefs and disagreements over the distribution of wealth, the meaning of economic fairness and the appropriate role of the state in addressing inequality.
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5. Public Opinion, Public Communication and Media Narratives
Perceptions of public opinion strongly influenced participants’ views on the political risks associated with wealth taxation. While many participants highlighted widespread public support for wealth taxation, others suggested that limited public understanding – of wealth inequality and tax policy, alongside misconceptions about who would be affected by particular reforms – could undermine support. The framing of wealth taxation was therefore considered particularly important. Participants in support of greater taxes on wealth frequently advocated for moving away from narratives focused principally on taking wealth from ‘the rich’ towards a more positive account of what additional taxation could provide for the wider population, including improved public services, investment, and greater economic equality. Further, media narratives were perceived as important in shaping public understandings of wealth taxation and its potential consequences, and often seen as politically biased and ‘anti-tax’. The findings suggest that public opinion is not simply an external constraint to which politicians respond, but is itself shaped by political communication, media discourse and the willingness of political actors to make the case for reform.
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6. Power, Vested Interest and Elite Influence
Participants also identified imbalances in political and economic access, resource and influence as a key factor in shaping the environment in which wealth tax reform is considered by politicians. Wealthy elites and business interests were seen to possess greater capacity to influence political decision making through lobbying, investment decisions, and access to media platforms, as well as the potential ‘capital flight’ risk they pose. Some participants also reflected on the comparatively affluent socioeconomic positions of political actors themselves and the social distance this can create from the economic circumstances and hardships experienced by much of the population.
However, elite influence was not viewed as uniformly hostile to reform. Supportive business leaders and wealthy individuals were considered as capable of and important for providing credibility and legitimacy which could drive an increase in support for wealth taxation. The broader issue was therefore one of unequal capacity to shape political agendas and public debate.
Political Differences in Understanding Barriers
This research reveals political differences in attitudes surrounding wealth taxation and suggests that political orientation shapes not only overall levels of support – or lack thereof – for higher taxes on wealth, but also how barriers are understood. Ideological opposition to wealth taxation was more pronounced among participants on the political right, who were more likely to frame wealth taxation as a threat to hard work, aspiration and economic success, drawing on wider beliefs surrounding meritocracy and the accumulation of wealth. Participants on the political left were generally more ideologically supportive of greater wealth taxation, instead drawing on principles of redistribution, equality and fairness to justify reform.
Participants’ political position also shaped how other barriers were interpreted, which came through particularly in discussions around economic risk. Participants on the right were more likely to regard potential effects on economic growth, investment and capital flight as substantive concerns, whereas those on the left were more likely to question the legitimacy and strength of these claims, while recognising the political significance of these narratives.
In terms of internal party dynamics, a recurring theme among many Labour participants was the importance of its party leadership in influencing the likelihood of vocal support amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party. Leadership endorsement was perceived as capable of legitimising reform, reducing the individual political risk associated with support and providing politicians who wished to advocate for greater taxes on wealth with greater confidence in doing so.
Perspectives Surrounding Different Forms of Wealth Taxation
Many of the barriers identified within the interviews were most pronounced when participants discussed bigger reforms perceived by many as novel or ‘radical’, such as the proposed 2% annual wealth tax on individuals with assets worth over £10 million. By contrast, barriers appeared less pronounced in relation to reforms considered relatively more moderate or familiar, such as changes to Capital Gains Tax or the introduction of the High Value Council Tax Surcharge (or ‘mansion tax’) at the 2025 budget. These reforms were generally perceived to present fewer economic and administrative risks, and provide opportunities to establish evidence of the effectiveness of taxing wealth more, which could lay the groundwork for pursuing more substantial reforms.
Implications and Possible Routes to Reform
When asked about the chances and conditions to overcome barriers (interview questions reserved for participants who signalled support for greater taxes on wealth) participants identified several ways in which the wider political conditions surrounding wealth taxation could change to make space for reform. Two clear and interconnected priorities emerged.
The first was the need for a stronger and more robust evidence base which is communicated clearly to the wider public. Participants expressed a desire for clearer evidence on the economic and behavioural consequences of reforms, to reduce uncertainty and provide politicians with greater confidence in supporting and defending proposed policies. Participants felt that a stronger and more effectively communicated evidence base would also increase public support for wealth taxation, which could in turn strengthen politicians’ likelihood of supporting these reforms, who respond to the views of their constituents. In this way, greater public support – or greater political awareness of existing public support – could transform wealth taxation from a perceived political and electoral risk into a potential electoral benefit.
Secondly, participants emphasised the need for better public facing framing, messaging and narratives surrounding wealth taxation. They highlighted the need for nuanced messaging which accounts for the economic concerns associated with taxes on wealth, as well as arguments for how these taxes can help tackle social inequalities. Participants further pointed to the need for a more positive public case for wealth taxation, focused on what reform could enable for communities and wider society. Several saw current communications as divisive and negative, focusing too heavily on ‘the wealthy’ or ‘the 1%’, and what should be taken from them.
In addition, an incremental approach to reform was frequently regarded as more politically viable and more likely to harness political support than the immediate introduction of bigger more novel reforms, such as an annual 2% wealth tax. Further, participants highlighted the importance of building broad and diverse coalitions of support across politicians, civil society, researchers and supportive business and wealthy actors, to develop clear and aligned strategic communications, strengthen the credibility of reform and generate public and political momentum.
Overall, the findings suggest that increasing political support for wealth taxation requires more than simply demonstrating the technical workability of a particular reform. It also requires creating the evidential, narrative and political conditions that make reform credible, publicly legitimate and politically viable. Political feasibility should therefore not be regarded as fixed: several of the barriers identified by participants would likely be reduced through stronger evidence, more effective communication, coalition-building and a gradual approach to reform.
The findings suggest that some barriers to political support of wealth taxation are more difficult to overcome, notably those rooted in strongly held ideological beliefs. Yet they also reveal that the wider environment in which politicians make decisions is shaped by a diverse myriad of factors, and that even ideological opposition may be moderated, particularly where advocating for reform is likely to become electorally advantageous.