The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s lack of political courage and a badly designed fiscal framework have backed us all into a corner.
With the budget not able to meet its own objectives of reducing debt or creating economic growth, no one has been fooled by Rachel Reeves’s claim that she can improve public services without raising sufficient revenue. We know this would only happen as part of a much bolder program of reform, including of both income and wealth taxes.
In the real economy, people are working out how to pay for water, food and heating – not to mention housing costs, childcare and social care. The most reported anxiety is not being able to afford bills.
And you (a person earning £68,400 or over, pre-tax), despite earning more than nine out of ten of us, feel squeezed too – not rich.
This, as we revealed in Uncomfortably Off, is because the income distribution is so unequal and stretched at the top. Even someone on a top three per cent income is still closer to the median earner (on approximately £39,000) than to those earning just above them with inherited assets, elite networks and unearned wealth.
As James Perry says in the foreword to Uncomfortably Off, earners at the very top aren’t relying on employment income but ‘enjoy the compound annual growth of their wealth, accruing at a rate far faster than they could ever spend’. You will never catch up.
For this reason, campaigns built around slogans like ‘tax the rich’ – however fair and obvious the introduction of a wealth tax may be while not being the sole elixir without further widespread reform – resonate with people on median incomes and below, but often alienate you.
So, how can you, as a high earner, influence what we believe is possible and shape public discourse?
With thanks to all those who contributed to the writing of Uncomfortably Off, here are ten post-budget suggestions:
1. Enable others (by which we mean those not on high incomes) to have a more prominent role in the institutions that make decisions
Even if you feel distanced from politics, please don’t ignore the signs all around us that democracy is no longer functioning: a voting system that wastes most votes, erosion of scrutiny, weakened watchdogs and restricted protest rights. First-past-the-post leaves whole regions voiceless. As Uncomfortably Off makes clear, collective problems – inequality, climate breakdown, falling living standards – cannot be solved individually. They require a political system capable of representing and mobilising the whole population. A democracy that stops working for most people will, eventually, stop working for you too.
2.Recognise that no economy works when most people can’t afford to pay their bills or to live where they work
Don’t assume the UK economy is functioning because it still (just about) works for you. When most people can’t afford basic bills or to live near their jobs, the economy is already failing – and so is our social contract. Sooner or later, that instability reaches you too.
3.Acknowledge how unequal the UK has become – and how inequality harms you as well
Don’t underestimate the scale of inequality in the UK or overlook how it damages your quality of life. Rising inequality corrodes public services, weakens social trust, heightens insecurity and increases long-term risks – including to your own children.
4.Recognise that ‘business as usual’ isn’t working
Push back against decades of conditioning that promised growth would solve everything. We’ve lived through 15 years of stagnation, falling living standards, underinvestment and regulatory failure around extreme wealth. Our financial system has been allowed to extract rents from assets rather than funding productive investment, and as one high earner interviewed for the book described it, this has resulted in ‘mass depletion of what the state, what public services provide’. Until this changes, no Budget will improve your life or anyone else’s. Without strategic state intervention – including price controls in sectors like energy – the system will continue to funnel wealth upwards while everyday life becomes harder for everyone else, including you.
5.Be honest about what works for you but not for everyone else: the tax system
Tax is often spoken about as a burden or something to be avoided, rather than as a collective tool for building shared goods. Let’s start focusing on alternative framings – Mamdani showed us how to do that. Tax isn’t a bill; it’s our collective venture capital, a down payment on our shared future. We must now confront the real issue: unfairness. Today, a teacher on PAYE can end up paying a higher effective tax rate than someone earning ten times more through dividends, capital gains or property income. That isn’t because the wealthy are cheating the system – it’s because the system is designed to privilege certain kinds of income. To fix this, people at the top need to start paying similar effective rates regardless of whether their money comes from wages, rents, shares or trusts. Fair tax isn’t about punishment – it’s about restoring balance, rebuilding trust and investing in a society where everyone contributes according to their real capacity.
6.Change the language of tax by dropping the esoteric language of fiscal rules and ‘headroom’ – and recognising that we are the economy
We are the economy, as the campaign of the same name reminds us. It must meet people’s basic needs. Instead of obsessing over abstract fiscal targets, ask what it would take for everyone to pay their water bills, heat their homes and feed their children.
7.Use public services – without believing they are beneath you
Rethink your relationship with the welfare state. You benefit from it far more than you realise: People in your income bracket use the NHS most because they live longer. Your children face growing risks of downward mobility, and even with family support, they will rely on public services too. You also benefit indirectly: The private medical consultant who treats you was trained at public cost; your employees’ health and childcare are supported by the welfare system; and the welfare state maintains social order – something that protects those ‘with the most to lose’.
8.Understand that cutting the social contract is a mistake – and an expensive one
Recognise that failing to invest in the safety net increases costs over time. The UK hasn’t reduced public spending; it has merely shifted the burden onto an ageing, poorer and sicker population, driving up long-term costs. This has been made worse by decades of politicians’ accepting that the government’s role was merely to fix market failures from the margins. What we have now is not an overbearing state but a hollowed-out one – deferring responsibility rather than exercising it. Serious investment is needed in public services, transport, utilities, digital infrastructure, research and climate protection.
9.Understand that life won’t get better unless we take back control of energy, water and transport
Accept that privatisation has failed. High bills, poor services and stalled climate action show that private utilities aren’t delivering. Public-led investment and regulation are essential – and the transition to net zero won’t succeed unless we address the unequal, consumption-driven emissions of the richest households, including your own.
10. Get serious about net zero
Tackling inequality is essential to hitting climate goals, backed by a state-led transition with major investment, strong regulation and protection for low-income households. But this must include the richest ten per cent reducing their exceptionally high carbon footprint.
Gerry Mitchell is a British social policy researcher, most recently having worked for IPSEA, an English SEND law charity and EVOC (Edinburgh), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Nordic (Stockholm), Compass (London) and TASC (Dublin).
Uncomfortably Off edited by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell is available here on Bristol University Press for £12.99.
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